the good and bad of digital technology …
Toronto. In issue 27-3, George Dunbar raises a now familiar alarm in his article, “Preservation of Invisible Photographs in the 21st Century”. As George points out, the digital era made it easy to take technically excellent photographs but unless printed, they remained electronic digital files subject to accidental or purposeful erasure.
George states, “Most photography collectors are aware of the wealth of material still available from the earliest days of Daguerreotypes, tintypes, glass plates and 20th century Brownie snapshots.
“Such photographs have one thing in common: a physical form and shape –something to hold on to. Today [November 2001] we are at the dawn of an age in which images are becoming nothing more than ‘bits and bytes’ of computer code stored invisibly and displayed on electronic media.
“Of course, once digital camera [and smartphone] photographs are printed onto paper they resemble traditional images to which we have grown accustomed for over 150 years.
“When working with traditional negatives and prints, most photographers, in the past, adopted the habit of filing-away the negatives and a few prints of the best images. Often, years later, archivists were able to look at the complete body of work (the negatives) of deceased photographers and discover amazing photographs of historical interest unappreciated by the photographer at the time of exposure.
“I’m fearful that the ease of instantly reviewing digital photographs and deleting – by the simple press of a button – those which do not satisfy the photographer, will have a disastrous effect on the preservation of recorded history. Of course, the greatest photographs of our times will survive; but will we lose valuable images that photographers, without forethought, may delete?” …
George’s somber article continues on and may be read by members in the issue 27-3 pdf format on the free members-only DVD/thumb drive. See above and at right to join or renew. Send queries to member@phsc.ca.
Collectors will find old photos and more at our 2026 events. Next up is our Spring Fair (held for the past 50 years). The locale and details are on the poster pinned to this web site.
