Avoiding Lost Memories in Photography

What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that's gone forever,
impossible to reproduce.
Karl Lagerfeld

by Skip Cohen

​In December I wrote a post about offering a Legacy Program for your clients. Well, there's a spinoff of that idea that starts with your own family. Now is the time to get a little help and fill in the blanks.

My Mom died of Alzheimer's many years ago, and we lost my Dad over six years ago. With them, the backstories behind so many old photographs disappeared, but I still have the albums. While they're fun to look through, I have no idea who some of the people are or what was going on in their lives at the time.

The group shot above is a perfect example. It was captured around 1930, and that's my grandmother, grandfather, and mother in the bottom right corner. I'm pretty sure it was captured somewhere around Painesville Township, Ohio. Unfortunately, beyond my grandparents and my Mom, any piece of the backstory is long gone.

The photograph on the right is my Uncle Ben between my great grandparents and probably around the same period. Until around twelve, I had three great-grandparents and three grandparents still living. But again, nobody thought to sit down with an old album and get the stories.

Don't get caught shoulding on yourself and thinking, "I should have sat down with my folks (or grandparents, etc.)..." The best part of Throwback Thursday is often the hunt for old images. So, take the time during the "slow season" and put those old photographs in front of family members who know the stories.

Every family needs at least one historian. You've got the skills to restore not only the quality of the images but the stories that go with them.

Happy Throwback Thursday!

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