A Guest Post by PBA Done Barone.
I know of her through a print.
A copy of a framed print hanging inside my parents’ house long ago.
I know of her because I held that photograph in my hand.
Her name is Annabelle.
She is my paternal Grandmother.
I know of her only through a print.
She passed before I was born.
I tell you this for one reason: an example of the value of printing the photographs you take.
You don’t have to print all of the photos you take, but you need to print some.
Full Disclosure: I know I’m writing this on a site built on printing photographs, but I didn’t ask if I could write this; they didn’t ask me to write this. They do print good stuff but this isn’t about them, it’s about you.
Technology will continue to change photography; some of your photographs will change with it, some may not. A printed photograph transcends digital images, especially when it comes to family. I’m a grandparent. I have dozens of photos of the grandkids…most of which are only in my phone.
In my phone, not in a picture frame.
We have started printing photos of the grandkids, printing photos of the parents of the grandkids, printing special moments, special places, birthdays, Christmas, kids looking goofy, my wife and I looking goofy.
We print not for today, but for tomorrow and all those tomorrows that will happen when we are gone.
You don’t have to print all the photos you take. You should, though, print the generational photos. Those prints will simply be how the future will know we were here.
They will know us through a printed photograph.
I know her through a print.
Her name was Annabelle.
And she was my paternal grandmother.
The original photo of her was printed in 1920…
…105 years ago.
