The Family Archive is Dying: Protect Your Family Photographs Now

Access to photography has never been greater, yet now the risk of the family archive dying out has never been more of an issue. This article explains why the digital age has put the family archive in danger, and what we, as photographers, can do about this.

There has never been a time in history when we have documented our lives more, now that everyone has a smartphone camera in their pockets. The snapshot has become completely disposable. Once valued as part of a family archive, now only "Instagram-worthy" images are uploaded to social media—complete with filters—then deleted from phones to clear space for more pictures of plates of food and picture-perfect selfies. This is a frightening prospect, as it changes what we choose to document and what we filter out. Over time, this alters how family life is captured and relayed to generations to come.

For those of you old enough to remember, there was excitement involved in returning from vacation and sending your film rolls to be developed, in what was usually a 7-day service. Waiting with bated breath for the prints added to the sense of anticipation and prolonged the memories of your trip. The joy of flipping through packs of 36 glossy 6x4 prints, reliving the adventures captured, is a sentiment cherished by those who experienced it. Back in the 1980s and 1990s, my parents used to invite friends and extended family over in the evening to pass around family photographs and tell them all about our trips away. Some others would bring their own images too, if they had recently traveled or had a special occasion. Nowadays, digital images from vacations are shared online during the trip, with updates almost every day or, at the very least, all shared in one dump at the end of the vacation. Now, I likely wouldn't click on a social media post from a friend's vacation to view 100 or more images unless I had some time to kill. Swiping and liking is no comparison to holding printed photographs in your hands.

As the only living photographer in the family, I have automatically become the custodian of my family archive, responsible for cataloging and caring for the images so that future generations can connect with us and witness the decades of documentation, which provides an insight into who we are as a family.

My great-grandparents' wedding photograph, estimated to have been taken around 1900, is displayed proudly in my mother's home. Yes, one single photograph exists of the couple, with crooked smiles to commemorate the special occasion. At that point in history, portrait photography was reserved for the wealthy, and so, for people like my great-grandparents, paying and sitting for a wedding portrait would be a very special occasion. It was possibly the only portrait they ever had taken in their lives. This image is hung on a wall in a hallway with no windows, away from direct sunlight to minimize fading. The image has also been scanned to preserve it for future generations, but who knows if the digital data will be readable in TIFF format by then.

Caring for Printed Images

Historical documentation is irreplaceable, and the same applies to the family archive. Printed photographs, when stored effectively, can last for hundreds of years, offering invaluable glimpses into the past. These visual records capture moments and memories that would otherwise be lost, preserving the essence of family heritage for future generations. Most old prints have been created using negatives and photosensitive paper. C-type or silver halide prints are the most common for these family snaps, either from film or more recently from digital negatives. When stored correctly, these will last for well over 100 years.

Treat your family photographs like museum artifacts, because they are an important indicator of your family history. What you store these prints in is just as important as the location of long-term storage. If you have numerous loose prints, consider cataloging these by date, even if you are just estimating the year, and group them by size. Larger prints can be stored in archival boxes that are acid-free and suitable for long-term storage.

Ideally, for smaller prints, photo albums are a fantastic solution for storage. If this takes up too much space, you could opt for boxed storage or acid-free photo sleeves, which will allow for more streamlined storage. Tissue paper is great for fighting against moisture, but you will need to ensure that you use acid-free tissue paper for this purpose to avoid any chemicals contaminating your prints. It is a good idea to swap out tissue, every 10-12 years should be frequent enough. Your negatives should be stored flat in appropriate sleeves to avoid deterioration or damage.

Choose a dry, safe, and secure location for your printed archive, with a constant temperature. Your garage is likely going to experience too much fluctuation in temperature and invite damp air in colder weather. Choosing indoor locations would be better, such as a closet, a dry basement, or a loft. Ensure there is plenty of airflow, and your photographs are not on the floor or stored against external walls to maintain a stable temperature.

Your Digital Archives

Another key step to ensuring the long-term survival of your family archive is to digitize your printed photographs. Investing in a flatbed scanner will allow you to digitize prints and photo negatives to ensure that your family archive lives on after prints have deteriorated.

As photographers, you should already have an organized digital archive; however, if not, it is not too late to get your digital storage in order. There are many methods for this, and everyone will have their own workflow. However, current best advice is to have your images backed up in three places to avoid loss: one copy of your images in cloud storage solutions like Google Photos, iCloud, or Dropbox, and two separate hard drives. These hard drives should not be stored at the same address, so consider renting long-term storage or asking a family member to keep some drives as a backup. Your images should be properly named and organized by date, with a clear folder structure to help find those images when you need them. If you don’t already, get into the practice of adding keywords into your metadata so that if you forget when an image was taken, you can search for the image by describing what is in the image.

Spread the Word

Engage in conversations with people about their family archive. Ask what they do with their images once they have shared them on social media. More often than not, day-to-day life is now captured with a smartphone, which is where the images are kept until they upgrade to a new phone with larger storage capacity, with some opting for cloud storage. It has been eight years since I closed my photography studio, yet I still receive requests from past clients asking if they can have further copies of their images. One customer told me that she had lost all of her images of her daughter as a young child due to a water-damaged phone, and hoped that I still had images from her newborn photoshoot, which, of course, I did. Another customer contacted me after losing printed portraits of her child in a divorce, seeking further copies. I have had requests for, and given away, many digital images after finding out that people I photographed had passed away. Having an organized digital archive allows me to do this, but most people are not photographers and have not set up a digital archive, meaning that there is a high risk of image loss among members of the public.

In an era dominated by digital screens, the physical family archive offers an offline experience, allowing individuals to switch off and engage in a more mindful and reflective activity. Looking through these photographs provides a unique opportunity to appreciate the past and strengthen familial bonds away from the distractions of modern technology. It is such an enriching experience, which doesn’t have to end in the digital age. Losing the family archive would mean facing a significant disconnection from family history and roots. These archives are more than just pictures; they hold emotional and cultural significance, revealing who looks like whom, and providing a sense of identity and lineage that binds generations together.

Document life as it is, not in picture-perfect setups. When documenting your family, don’t consider your online connections as your audience. Consider your children, and their children, who I’m sure would like to see life as it was, not as you wanted it to seem.

By adopting best practices for digital image storage and educating others, we can preserve our family archives for future generations. Let us take proactive steps today to safeguard the precious moments of our lives. Do you have any tips for organizing or storing your family archive?

All images in this article are from Kim Simpson's family archive.