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RE: I scanned my late father's collection of nearly 4,000 family photos from the past 60 years or so.

in #photography5 years ago

I love these.
I'm doing something like this myself with pictures my parents took.

I love the images, but I feel I really have to add words when I can. Names, dates or at least an attempt at guessing the era. What was happening. Unfortunately, that takes quite a bit of time, so when I try to do that the scanning gets very slow.
So I scan first and annotate later.
And now both my parents have become demented. Neither remembers anything about most of the pictures. Mom also has confabulation, a condition where her brain saves her the stress of not remembering something by giving her a completely fictional memory. She tells stories of things that never happened with absolute sincerity.
Those pictures I scanned already, many of them will forever be just images that suggest a story.

Dementia has also struck several other of my older relatives, and death most of the rest. Except for one aunt, I am now the oldest member of my family who is allowed go outside without an escort. She is too busy dealing with the other demented family members to take on new family history work. I am too busy with my own parents to do much scanning.

{Yes, I am absolutely terrified every time I can't remember something, even something it is entirely normal to forget.}

But the images I have scanned, especially those where I know the story, those bring me joy and some sense of continuity. I need to get writing on those. And maybe show them to Mom. Her information may be completely fictional, but it can be interesting.

One picture in particular - my little brother and a big fish he caught. He recently died of cancer. I made him a large copy of that picture. He remembered that fish and it brought him one of his last few smiles. His widow asked if she could keep it. Of course she could, even if I hadn't made that copy specifically for them, which I had.

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