Crazy Classic Life

A great way to touch grass is to ground yourself in past experiences. You probably have thousands—okay, millions—of photos on your phone. How often do you look at them? How far back do you scroll? How many are lost to phone updates?

Photo albums are a classic strategy for bringing the past into perspective, celebrating the present and setting yourself up for the future.

Albums create a visual bridge and catch details that official records can miss. For example, photos of special events, family gatherings and even everyday life can reveal community ties that might not otherwise be obvious.

Photos can also give context for someone’s life in that moment—what were the buildings like? The clothing? The objects? It can be super fun to flip through photos and see your grandparents’ hairstyles, outfits and furniture from when they were your age. Similarly, your kids (or future you) will get a kick out of how much has changed since the photo you took yesterday.

You may have a bunch of photos already or just think the idea of an album is cool (even though you don’t have anything in mind). Here are three options for where to go from here.

1. I’ve Got Photos

Awesome. If you already have photos in mind, think about how you want to access them.

Even though we’re talking about photo albums, a digital photo frame or screensaver might be the right choice if you want to enjoy your pictures regularly and spontaneously. There are a wide variety of digital options available, and you may even have free versions already on your device(s) if you do some digging. You can typically set these kinds of tools to automatically slideshow a folder of files, which means whenever you look, you’ll see something fresh.

If your primary goal is preservation, the 3-2-1 backup strategy is worth remembering. Keep three copies of important photos: two on different media, and one stored in a different location. That minimizes the chance that your photo will get lost, tossed or corrupted. For preservation, you should also consider materiality. Most paper lasts 50 years in proper storage; digital file formats are sometimes only compatible for 10 years or less (and can vary wildly in quality and ease of access).

Microfilm and slides are still the gold standard for archives because they can last over 500 years and be read directly by eye. That said, acid-free photo boxes and rolls of microfilm are harder to look at spontaneously.

If you want looking at your photos to be casual but more intentional than a screensaver, photo albums are the sweet spot. For digital photos, you’ll need to print them. You can print a photobook (photos pre-organized onto pages and printed with a binding) or print them individually to be put into an album.

If you take the photobook route, there are commercial services that offer templates and printing. You can also design it yourself and have it printed at a print/copy/office store. Just check what kind of bindings and the range of booklet sizes on offer to make sure you end up with something you like.

If you take the album route, you can find old albums to re-use at thrift stores, used bookstores or online (sometimes even with old photos inside)—or you can buy a new one, or make the binding yourself. Be sure to get high-quality photo paper, ideally archive type. It will last longer and hold colors better. Photo corners are great for making sure you don’t damage your photos and can move them later if you want to.

2. I’ve Got Too Many Photos

Again, awesome. All the above still applies, but now you need to think about how to curate. Some things to consider when deciding what to keep:

• Does it have long-term value? Will you be able to tell why you kept it?
• Does it spark joy?
• Are faces in focus and big enough to recognize?
• Is there a place or event of importance in the background?

It’s good practice to label printed photos. It can also help you narrow in on why something feels important to keep. Labels can be filenames, on paper next to printed photos, or on photo backs in pencil. Pencil is less likely to cause damage or fade over time.

Timing your photo review is important. It can feel urgent to choose the best, touch up and cull photos immediately after you take them, but this can also mean you overlook or delete great shots because they weren’t the photos you “meant” to take. Your first pass should be labeling and sorting by date so you can easily find the group you are interested in again. Make yourself an appointment and look back in two weeks.

Also, keep in mind that you can make multiple albums. Perhaps you want an album or photobook for each big trip or each major event. Perhaps you want one for each year or every five-year period. Maybe you want themes—this one for concerts, that one for nature walks, etc.

3. I Like the Idea, But I Don’t Have Any Cool Photos…

That is totally okay. Albums don’t have to be only photos. You can make albums of postcards, ticket stubs and other mementos. A lot of these kinds of objects are digital now but, like photos, can be printed—and with the right layout and design, can still look cool. You can also put a call out to friends and family and get them to give you copies of photos they have: photos of you, of things they think you’d like or of them.

Another idea is to collage with found photos or prints of things you like. Get an instant camera and take some photos or get an old-school camera and plan out future albums.

And who knows, if you become famous, your album could end up in a museum or archive.

Some more inspiration:

• Michael Disfarmer was a small-town portrait photographer whose negatives came to national attention in 1973.
• Vivian Maier (1926-2009) took thousands of photographs during her lifetime. Her work was not discovered until after her death, when the contents of her storage units, including hundreds of thousands of negatives, were sold at auction.
• A book in our collection with tips for organizing photos from a professional.
• A look at what’s lost when we stop making albums.