Musings on the Present Current Future of Photographic Images

Archiving is a natural thing, I suppose, as is arranging, organizing and documenting. Various content sites such as flickr and a million plus blogs are growing faster than American's waistlines. There is a tendency for humans to share just as there is a tendency for birds to crow. What is usually missed, however, is that social websites have basically created an entire population of content providers, none of whom get paid one penny. In fact, some pay for the privilege. Every image loaded becomes public property of a sort, but it also becomes fodder for search engines to use, manipulate and market. As computerized digital recognition becomes more and more sophisticated, one will be able to specify any characteristic in an image and retrieve it in micro-seconds. "Let's find 50 images which look EXACTLY like Aunt Gertie!" I'm not kidding one bit. (One might also specify a search parameter to find models with their faces obliterated by too much incandescent light, as above) It should give one pause...me? I don't care as I usually retain the originals, and there will always be someone interested in physical objects (at least I think there will). I am also interested in how things age and fall apart more than how they are maintained and preserved. But if you treasure a photo, drawing, painting or doodle with unique characteristics of any kind, you might think about uploading it into the universal brain.

Untitled (Photographer) Snapshot, c. 1940 Collection Jim Linderman