After completing the previous Post on “Why do people keep photos”, I emailed the philosopher Robert Hopkins of the University of Sheffield, and asked him if he could point me in the direction of someone who is knowledgeable on the subject of why people keep photos.  He very kindly sent me the following reply:

“I don’t know of any philosopher who has addressed this specific question. However, one might use some of the views in the philosophy of photography to try to answer it. As you perhaps know, Kendall Walton, in a famous paper called ‘Transparent Pictures’, argues that to see someone in a photo of them is literally to see that person. So photographs are aids to vision: like spectacles, mirrors, microscopes and night vision goggles, they allow us to see things through them. The special feature of photographs, in this regard, is that they allow us to see things that lie in the past. Walton thinks that, while ordinary folk wouldn’t necessarily put things that way, they are sensitive to this fact about photographs. We treat photos differently from other pictures, and we do so because they put us in some specially intimate relation with the objects in them. His account explains what that intimacy amounts to: it is seeing the thing. If he’s right about all this, the answer to your question comes readily enough. People keep photographs because they want to be able to see scenes, and the people and objects in them, even when those people and things are long gone, or far away, or no longer in the state they once were.”

The paper that Rob refers to is accessible at this address: http://komm.bme.hu/wp-content/uploads/group-documents/76/1315656188-Walton_Transparent_Pictures.pdf

It was published in December 1984 in the journal Critical Enquiry and is 30 pages or so of detailed discussion illustrated by example photos and pictures. At the time of writing it, Kendall Walton was Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan.

A quick analysis of the four pieces I had found on the net to do with ‘Why do people keep photos'[Why-do-people-keep-photos-v1.1-13Jul2012] seems to indicate the following:

The main reasons that people keep photos is a) as a reminder of the past, and b) to share their experiences with others. There are many aspects to the first reason including:

• To experience a moment again and the feelings you had at that moment.
• To remind you of someone you really liked – or perhaps hated.
• To escape from the present to the past because it is somehow more enjoyable than the present.
• To augment a vague memory and see how it really was.

People also keep other artefacts such as theatre tickets and programmes, but a photo provides a richer memory experience. The saying ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ is appropriate for a variety of reasons including:

• Photos tell us about the person photographed, and how they looked, what they did and liked or disliked, and maybe even how they were feeling or what they were thinking.
• Photos tell us about history, trends and how things have changed or stayed the same.
• Photos also tell us about the interests , preferences and lives of the people taking the photos.

Photos also have a special value over and above keepsakes or even paintings – they are ‘factive’. That is, we know that, provided things are working properly and have been done right, what’s in a photo actually existed or occurred. Of course, most people are aware that photos can give a false impression or can be doctored, but under normal circumstances photos show things the way they were.

Keeping photos is not normally classified as Hoarding – though a couple of the characteristics of hoarders might apply – no confidence in one’s memory and a fear of forgetting important memories. So, it is likely that someone with hoarding tendencies would probably want to keep photos – but just because someone keeps photos doesn’t make them a hoarder.

Interestingly, I found little mention of specific family reasons for keeping photos – either to see what one’s ancestors were like or to pass photos down to future generations. There was mention that photos tell us about our history and can serve as a linkage of one generation to another but no discussion of why those things are important. My guess is that it is just a natural human trait to be interested in where you came from and what your ancestors were like; and that any desire to hand photos down to the next generation simply reflects the value that individuals place on having such information about their ancestors themselves.

Today I started looking for info on the net about why people keep photos. There’s a lot of thoughts out there on this topic, for example:

http://youthcoders.net/photo/theory/979-why-do-people-keep-photographs.html

However, more academic discussion about the underlying reasons were harder to find. There is a site which, among other things, summarises aspects of  “The Psychology of photography” which is relevant but not exactly spot on:

http://dynamics.hubpages.com/hub/The-Psychology-of-Photography

I found a piece in the Psychology Today site which describes a paper by  philosopher Robert Hopkins of the University of Sheffield on “what’s special about photographs?”

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/maybe-its-just-me/201012/whats-so-special-about-photographs

I also came across a very detailed presentation about hoarding which seems to have some sort of relationship to the question:

http://www.hoardingsqualorconference.com.au/2009/files/presentations/Psychology%20of%20Compulsive%20Hoarding%20-%20Dr%20Christopher%20Mogan.pdf

I think I’ll have a more detailed read of the above links and then maybe contact somebody working in the area to try and have a brief discussion on the subject.

Family photo collections often include many types of prints handed down from distant relatives, and large numbers of photos, negatives and digital images from more recent times. Some people have organised and managed their family photos over the years and continue to do so with a variety of software tools and internet services. However, the natural tendency is for the photos to accumulate in envelopes and drawers, and computers and phones, often to get thrown away or to be otherwise lost to the family. Reversing this tendency and assembling a large set of family photos into an organised, accessible and durable collection is not simple and is very time consuming.

There are three main aspects to address – the physical images and negatives, digitisation of the images, and indexing. For each aspect there are lots of different ways of doing things, and there’s lots of advice and software available. However, this journey will explore the practical problems that I encounter and the solutions I come up with. These may not necessarily be the best way of doing things – but they are solutions that work. I actually started doing this many years ago and am now close to finishing, so what is documented here is fairly well tried and tested.

In addition to actually organising the collection, I often wonder why I’m bothering to do it and why people take photographs and keep them at all. So, this journey will also be exploring those questions as well.