Saving history

Photo: Randy Vanderveen Grande Prairie, Alberta A track hoe tears down the old Wapiti Dorm which served as a community dorm in Grande Prairie for many years until the new Rotary House came into service this past winter.Documenting the history of your community is often forgotten by photographers as taking photos of buildings and street scenes can seem boring.

But, as I have written about before it is important to use it as a type of self-assignment to capture things before they are gone, like Grande Prairie's Wapiti Dorm which was levelled late last week. 

This is especially true in Western Canada. The area is relatively young when it comes to being settled although it has a long history with native communities.

Despite its newness or maybe because of it, we don't seem to even think of saving our history like other parts of the world or even nation.

Buildings that are 50 years old or newer are often torn down and replaced with something new — and not always with something more architecturally pleasing.

Some of this has to do with building materials used after all a stick frame building doesn't last as long as a stone or even log structure.

That constant change means our communities and neighbourhoods disappear or take on a different look.

However, even if the changes are documented — those records themselves are in jeapordy.

It is believed that the majority of digital photos taken are not printed or properly backed up which means a hard drive failure is all that stands between a record of our history existing and disappearing.

For photographers, when it comes to backing up images — whether they are happy snaps of family and friends or a once in a life time photograph— REDUNDANCY IS OUR FRIEND.

Your photos should be backed up in several places and not just on your computer's hard drive.

While DVDs and CDs are not necessarily a long term archival solution, at least they are a temporary backup.

There are also external hard drives (which continue to drop in price), on-line solutions like Photoshelter. There is even a company that will convert your images onto film — back to the future.

Ultimately the responsibility of ensuring your images survive is yours. You should have a plan and workflow in place to ensure that there is not just one copy of your photos.

Why not make a mid-year's resolution to start working on your archive today.