What happens to family memories without photo albums?

In the age of cloud storage we have thousands of photos filed but in the absence of a physical copy to flip through, do we ever revisit them?People are taking more photos than ever before. But, even with thousands of pictures on their devices, many families no longer have a single photo album at home. As physical albums become increasingly rare and memories shift to phone and cloud storage, how will future generations revisit and understand their family history? For research centre and collections manager at the Centre of Visual Arts and Research (CVAR) Holly Kunst, the significance of the traditional photo album was more than just about the photographs themselves. “Right from the start, what you are looking at in a photo album is a very selective representation of someone’s past, and that selection process is important,” she says. “It’s not just how the person chose to represent their story (consciously or not) but it’s now how you will perceive it”. Kunst recalls getting together with family and going through albums whenever they were reunited after spending time apart. “The importance of this act, or ritual even, is less about entertainment and more about reinforcing identity through repetition of shared memory,” she says. “For my family, it made sense that after being apart for a long time, we could go through these old photos and strengthen that sense of connection to each other.” The selection process transformed albums into more than just a collection of photos. They played a role in shaping family stories. “I’ve built my own myth around the people in these photographs on the basis of nothing more than a few images, and the odd name, date or dedication,” says Kunst. “But I think that there is importance of photo albums with regards to memory. You are not going to find a perfect retelling of historical events. You are going to find what one person valued in that moment, and by revisiting that moment, you are, in a sense, sharing that value system.” These personal notes can also shed light on information not available in official accounts. According to Kunst, photographs in CVAR’s collections are often used to help identify buildings or places that have since changed or been demolished. Valuable information may also be gained from handwritten notes or comments made on personal photographs. One example that stands out to her is a photograph of dock workers in Larnaca. Written on the back was a note saying how everyone was friendly towards one another, and people of different ethnicities were getting along despite the divisions and conflicts of the time. “I think these personal photos give a window into the day-to-day experiences of regular people whose lives move at a different pace than the grand historic narratives,” she says. “It gives you a better feel for what people were actually thinking and feeling in the moment of time, which you can then place against the backdrop of historic narrative.” Although photographs may have shifted from albums to phones and cloud storage, it is more difficult to preserve them than you might think. Cyprus State Archivist Dr Christos Kyriakides says that one of the most common misunderstandings concerning digital archives is the idea that such information will last forever. “From an archival point of view, I believe that the greatest danger is the illusion of permanence and security of photographic material,” he says. “Many people believe that because something is stored digitally, it will remain available forever.” Digital preservation is an ongoing process because mobile phones and computers can be lost or damaged beyond repair, or the policies for certain cloud storage may cease or become inaccessible. Even if the photographs themselves are not damaged the can simply disappear within their own abundance. “Without proper organisation and classification, photographs accumulate in large numbers and are often ‘lost’ within their own volume,” Kyriakides says. “When there is a need to access a particular photograph, it is not easily found.” For Kyriakides, keeping the memory does not solely lie in the preservation of the image itself. The image gets its real meaning when supplemented with information about the subjects and circumstances of where it was shot. “Without this information, much of their historical and emotional significance is lost over time,” he says. However, Kunst is not convinced that the demise of the traditional family photo album inevitably leads to loss of memories. “Something is certainly changed, at least if you grew up with physical photographs but I wouldn’t say lost”, she says. “I don’t want to fall into that trap of nostalgia where the old ways were somehow inherently better.” However, she acknowledges that the connection with photos has changed. Printed photos would be visited time and time again, while digital ones are often buried among thousands of others. “If Google didn’t remind me now and then of some of these pictures, I might never look at them again,” she says. “I’ve lost the ceremony of having them printed, writing on the back, organising them in an album that I may or may not share, and looking at them time and again, reliving those moments.” Regardless, she believes the desire to document special occasions has not changed. “When people get married, they still want professional group photographs. When people have children, they still take a million pictures and put them together in a collection,” she says. “People are always just being people.” “In the realm of the family, the desire to capture particular moments to be revisited remains and will continue to act as an adhesive within that group.”