My great grandmother Anne Kellogg passed away in early 2015, and at my request I took over the control of her archive in June of that year rather than having it all thrown out. Archive is a loose, but probably accurate term for her photo collection, given that she shot several rolls of film a month for several decades. I have 25 full shoe boxes stuffed to the gills with negatives and prints, and about 5,000 color positive slides. I confess that I’ve not been a proper curator of the archive, but I’ve set upon the project once again.
Mom, Grandma, and overexposed sisters.
I’ve recently supplied myself with archival boxes and envelopes, and I started to sort through what’s useful and whats not. Once upon a time I thought it was all useful and that every photo was worthy. But that was a few years ago, and I’ve changed my philosophy since then. I think that the archive isn’t doing anything if it’s not accessible by other people, So making sure that the images are accessible is really a part of my goal for ‘22. Eventually I want to build a photo book for the family. Currently, I have been going through one box a day, labeling, and transferring prints to envelopes. Sorting through the images is a really emotionally exhausting process, despite being incredibly boring. There’s a ton of emotion invested in these photos even when they’re relatively dumb and uninteresting.
Me, Age 5, Standing “Naturally”
There are little glimmers of beauty though: Captured moments, old memories, Images of aunts and uncles before I was born. I really do think there is meaning in this work, and I hope to have something useful made sooner rather than later so that people can make use of it. Look forward to more updates.
My Uncle, striking the same pose as me. Closer, but just as blurry