A Few Old Photographs.....

I am currently the curator of my families old photographs and in the last while I’ve been going through them looking for photos of my older sister who I’m doing a photobook for her 50th birthday.
I did a similar project for my younger brothers 40th birthday which was well received, and have done various books for my wife and my in laws.

Today we have digital cameras, phones etc etc… There are literally thousands of pictures of my own children, taken purely with digital cameras as neither of us have a fancy phone. Yet when I look through the old family photos , there are patterns….

My sister is the eldest and was also the first grandchild on my mothers side of the family. There are photos galore of her as a baby. her at a week, 2 weeks, 3 weeks, , 1 month, 2 months, 3 month etc etc …. my older brother comes along and there are a few of him but suddenly the volume of pictures goes down.
Eventually we get to my younger brother, where there are two pictures of him in his first year other than his christening!

Most pictures are from formal occasions. Christenings, Communions, Confirmations and so on.There are fewer photos of children as the years go on. There are little or no pictures from the family holidays.
The older photos remind me that I have to sit down with my Mother and my Auntie (on my fathers side) and find out who all the people are before they get lost into the mists of time.

In the sixties and seventies there are colour photos amidst the bulk of black and whites. I asked my mother and she explained how each batch of these colour photos come from the visit of American Cousins and their fancy cameras.
The amount of crap photos is astounding, whole pouches of awful photos, smudged, maybe two pictures in the one, cut off heads and so on. The amount of times I remember myself thinking I was taking a masterpiece and then the photos come back and they are all woeful.
The funny thing is yes, boxes of photos and old photo albums are ‘clutter’ but at least they are there …. due to a banjaxed hard drive , seven years of my sisters digital photos were gone.

A few old Photographs…..

The Mohill Irish Country Womens Association from the mid 60s …. with my granny top right

Sandycove Baths from 1942 .. my mother on her holidays in Dublin!

About these ads