Leaving a Legacy in Photos

I don’t know if I’ll ever write an autobiography. I think there’s a tendency for many of us to assume that our own stories wouldn’t be that interesting, until we start to think through some of the actual experiences and the stories that we’ve been part of. I do think it’s a great thing to be able to leave our children and their children. I’d love to have a biography of my parents or their parents.

Even if I don’t write my own, I do want my library of images to be in some ways autobiographical. And by that I don’t just mean leaving behind the most beautiful photos, or the most striking or even my favorites. I mean allowing the images to tell some of the story of my life. The professional photos, the family moments, the blurry snapshots.

I’ve been gradually adding scans of my old prints into Apple Photos. And picking out plenty of meaningful digital images from previous years. And adding names and locations and notes so that anyone could understand the images. Gradually they start to tell a story, of sorts, of my life. And the collection, ever growing and updated, is always with me on my phone, which is kinda nice.

 Despite a few glitches, I have to say that I do like the latest update to Apple Photos for iOS. Being able to easily add or amend metadata really helps the process. It’s quick now to add a location and correct a date (for a scanned print) or to see when I face has been recognized but not yet identified.

There’s no way I would rely on social media to curate our memories (although admittedly Apple uses it’s own algorithms to show selected images too).

Whether you use Apple or Google Photos or Lightroom or some other platform, it’s a long project but I recommend it.