Photog

I've always been the one to go around shooting pictures. As a result, I have a fairly extensive visual record of my life as far back as high school. Of course, back then digital cameras were clunky, underpowered, and ate up batteries in a matter of minutes and so every picture I took was on 35mm film and produced in glossy 4x6 inch prints. Printed photos still possess some magic quality that digital files can't really replicate. But then there are the boxes of photos.

I have three shoe boxes (really, these are photo boxes I paid seven dollars a piece for) of photos chronicling my life from the eighth grade until about my sophomore year of college. Since then I've been shooting mostly digital, with a few rolls of film thrown in from my 35mm SLR. Had I still been shooting on film, I'd by now have six or seven boxes taking up precious closet space. And I'd probably never look at the photos.

The last time I went through the boxes of photos was after learning one of my former classmates died. Death causes funny things, and for me that meant browsing old photos. Many of the people in these photographs are folks I haven't spoken to for years, and might very well never speak to again.

This all leads to me to wonder what in the world I am to do with all these printed photos. Sitting in their boxes, the photos are well protected from time, though this also makes it difficult to casually browse through them. By contrast, my digital photos are archived on hard drives at the office and at home. They are easily accessible whenever I'm at a computer, and more importantly, protected from natural disasters by having copies in two locations.

But that still doesn't solve the problem of all these physical prints. They could remain forever in their heavy boxes, moved every time I move, forgotten until the death of another classmate, sitting behind board games and muffin tins-- no, I must digitize them.

The process will be painful and laborious. At most, five photos can fit on the scanner bed at a time. There are literally hundreds, nay, thousands, of photos. I was in the high school drama club-- I have photos from almost every show. There are photos from the prom, the junior prom, field trips and vacations, birthday's and even non-events. Dozens of rolls of film.

Then there is the editorial process. Which photos are good enough to spend the time scanning? Which are better off left to turn to dust? Do I ignore people I have since ceased being friends with? Are these relative strangers worth digitizing so I never have to open the photo boxes again?

Maybe I should simply revise my personal history.