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Dr Donna Blevins's avatar

Oh, the boxes and boxes I have of printed photos going back to the 1940s a wee bit before I was born. Most have nothing written on them. My mom never threw away any photos, then, thank goodness she began noting in pencil on the back.

But we do have the family shot in front of a log cabin when Mom was under ten, I figure. That would be around 1936.

Somehow my mom came across the negative and had prints made for everyone. She was an entrepreneur before any of us knew that word.

Richard Partridge's avatar

That's amazing! I have two boxes of photos from my Mum's family and my Dad's and I've worked through all of the ones from my mum and made a book of them. Like you most had nothing written on them but I loved going through and trying to organise them into some form of order. The odd one or two had dates on them which helped to 'place' them. It is one of the things that inspires me as a photographer to record things. What might seem boring or 'normal' to us will be ( I think) Fascinating in two generations time ...

Dr Donna Blevins's avatar

I love how you pick a thing and snap away. Or rather the thing picks you.

One of my favorites started when developing and printing was expensive.

It was signs. Outdoor signage fascinated me. Many I never got because of their placement.

Billboards were the most dangerous especially on high traffic road sides.

But business signs on buildings sometimes made me turn around...

- On a restaurant that closed (🤣) before I could snap it:

Drive Thru Buffet

- In the desert beside the freeway when the next exit was far too away, but I have seen this on the internet:

- Diesel Fried Chicken

I bet you have a bunch of funny signs. Please tag me when you post them. Or tag me in the comments of the one you've already posted.

I love to chuckle and nod 😃

RBNC's avatar

This is that random shit I absolutely love. Design in places we overlook sometimes, due to familiarity. Well done.

Richard Partridge's avatar

Ha totally ... when I look at something I always think to myself 'someone designed that'

Linda Blatnik's avatar

Buzz buzz buzz...

Linda Blatnik's avatar

ʼno one now, Richard.

I ẅent home 3 weeks ago.

Neil Scott's avatar

Curious how these photos are tagged. Was it easy to curate or do you have to painstakingly scour through your archives?

Richard Partridge's avatar

All my film stuff is tagged - took an age - but manageable. The stuff shot on d750 I try to tag as I go but usually only generically so that I can know the 'areas' to search when curating these ...

Neil Scott's avatar

Thanks! What software do you use to organise everything?

Richard Partridge's avatar

Lightroom all the way - so I use general tags like ‘street’ or ‘London’ and as I find things that interest me overtime I tag those - e.g ‘photographer’ or ‘stare’ (people who look into my camera) I then create smart collections with those keywords, which helps me organise those for these newsletters …. It’s impossible to sit in front of a photo and tag for all the possibilities you might want so I go as generic as I can which helps me to narrow down when I do groupings …

Neil Scott's avatar

Thanks. Sounds v sensible. Things are getting out of control here!

Richard Partridge's avatar

Yeh - I felt the same - whether you like lightroom for editing or not the catalogue side of it works great

Daniel Appleton's avatar

Banksy's been a BUSY LITTLE BEAVER in a few of these, I would say.....& I think that I may have had another idea for a project.

Richard Partridge's avatar

One day i'll bring out the collection of early Banksy's I have in the archives !

Daniel Appleton's avatar

By all means. I have a homecare person that I have to babysit.....