Why label family photos? It's a nuisance. Yes, but it's harder to do it later. Read on for my success stories at the end.
The day after my mother died I went through my father's photo boxes looking for a good photo of her to put on the table at the funeral reception. I pulled out lots of photos.
I was asking the questions journalists are taught to answer in the first paragraph of a news report. Who, where, what and why?
First who. Who is this? Are they close family, a distant relative, friend or stranger? Do you know their first name? Their last name? Their nickname? Who were their family? You then get the complete picture, for example, John Smith, husband of Jane Smith, our (Mike and Miranda Brown) neighbour at 39 London from 1900 to 1950. They lived at number 37. You might even want to add historic facts and simple or juicy details.
Historic
For example: historic: such as: he owned the grocery store. This might be useful to local historians and newspapers.
Good
The good. They were good people. Why? Why should family or anybody care? They were good to us. They went on holiday with us every year. (In that case, we must invite them to the funeral, give them the photo album in which they feature constantly, or give them a few items when house clearing. Were they local heroes? Yes, they did ... Maybe after your relative dies, and the old neighbour is suffering from dementia in an old people's home and dies age 90, you will be the only one who can tell the local newspaper or the person who writes a letter asking for old stories about your town.
The Bad
Supposing your or my Mum or Dad says something like, 'Don't write this down. They sued us when our dog Rover bit their child John. Their daughter had an affair with a married man and got pregnant, then married four times.' Oops. Of course I would want to write it down.
I would have to be careful to add that the person who said this was very elderly and I never knew the truth. If I write it down and it is revealed, if I have not said it but merely reported it as a rumour, that might protect me from being sued. On the other hand the person I claim said it could be sued.
If, on the other hand, you have a verifiable fact, you can trace the facts back to a newspaper report of a court case, or a document of birth or death. You might instead attach a photocopy or print out of the newspaper cutting to the back of the photo.
You could go back and ask other surviving relatives what they knew about the case. Also ask them for photos of the people concerned. Your mother's cousin or uncle - won't their grandchildren have a photo, and a story which matches or supplements yours.
Do we need to keep this out of focus photo? Was it something you took by mistake or have you kept it because it was important?
Forgotten
Or, on the contrary, you've forgotten. Which hotel? Which place? That's why it's so much easier to label photos at the time. You still have postcards, hotel brochures. Failing all else, cut the name off the hotel brochure before you throw it away and store it with the photo, or photograph it in your collection of holiday photos to provide a caption.
I like to take a photo of a map or road sign or air ticket at the start of a journey. It provides an accurate time and date of my trip. Similarly, a photo of the city signpost before I photograph the cathedral, the hotel name before I photograph the swimming pool or bedroom, the name on the menu before I photograph the food, the wedding invitation before I photograph the bride.
Success Stories
1
2
3
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
If you find this information useful, please like and share this post and follow me.
No comments:
Post a Comment