What to Do With Print Photos You Do — and Don’t — Want
Let’s talk about photos.
No, not the 4th of July selfies where you look gloriously happy. I’m not even talking about digital photos at all, but prints.
If you’ve only ever taken photos with a phone, did you know that’s only been possible since 1999? Babies born the week the iPhone was invented are about to be seniors in high school. And before then, there were digital cameras, but really only since the 1990s.
For most of photographic history, photos were printed on paper. (And yes, if you’ve got a headache thinking that I even need to explain this, I feel your pain, fellow oldster.) This means that many of our houses are filled with envelopes and boxes and albums of print photos, some of which aren’t very good.
DIGITAL VS. ANALOG PHOTOS: WHY IT’S HARD TO DISCARD ONE AND NOT THE OTHER
You may be wondering what the big deal is. If you’ve only (or mainly) got digital photos, you’re probably happy to let them sit there on your phone or in cloud backup. Maybe you make slide shows to display on a digital photo frame or create photo books, but they probably aren’t bothering you.
People enjoy their digital photos because we’re all used to immediately deleting bad shots. Mom is squinting into the sun or our midriffs look bulge-y? Hit that trash can icon! We’re generally comfortable with deleting items from our photo stream.
And yet, as I’ve seen time and again with friends and clients, the prospect of throwing out any print photo seems to make people wince.
We're generally comfortable with deleting items from our photo stream, but the prospect of throwing out a print photo seems to make people wince. Share on XPeople second-guess themselves when faced with a photo that resembles nothing so much as 99% thumb with a blurry background.
Recently, a client and I flipped through a stack of his late father’s photos from the 1950s. They ranged from high school dance snapshots to Korean-era war era Army training. All were shot in black-and-white, and while several were fairly crisp and well-lit, many were blurry, and either washed out or too dark.
Client’s mystery photo circa 1956
This one was not only impossible to identify (boxes? filing cabinets? Is that Mr. Potato Head?). His father, who’d meticulously noted the participants in most photos, had just written, “Beats me” on the reverse.
The reverse of the mystery photo: “Beats Me”
For six decades, this print stayed in the stack, sandwiched between personally and historically relevant photos. Why do we do this?
Maybe it’s because we’re completists. We have the negatives and we worry that if we throw out the print, the numbers won’t match up, and someone, some day, will be upset by the imbalance.
Perhaps it’s because we don’t trust our own judgment. Compared to the high quality photography we’re capable of now, old shots are pretty poor. We’ve got thirty-seven identical photos of the lilac bush in the corner of the front yard from 1978. We’re sure they’re useless. But what if we’re wrong? What if these shots are artistic? What if we discard the one that’s actually the best?
Fearing our own taste (or lack thereof) we keep bad prints, even though we wouldn’t hesitate to prune these from our photo streams right after snapping them.
Or maybe it’s just because analog things feel more real to us than digital things? Thus, the loss of the tangible seems real, whereas the digital even doesn’t seem real in the first place, so letting go doesn’t bother us.
If I make the decision to give away a hardcover because I know I’ll never read it again, I often feel disconcerted, even though this is what I do professionally. When a borrowed library ebook automatically gets returned (unread or even only partially read), I just shrug. There’s no distress. They’re just not real to me. I suspect for some of us, it’s the same with digital photos. But prints?
HOW TO ORGANIZE THE PRINT PHOTOS YOU DO WANT: A CHEAT SHEET
Some print photos are like a warm hug.
Paper Doll and big sister, spring 1968
Handling an embarrassment of print photo riches is a labor of love. You must:
- Separate the wheat from the chaff and eliminate what you don’t want. (See next section.)
- Sort photos, whether chronologically or by event types (birthdays, holidays, etc.) or themes.
- Determine how you’ll store print photos:
- Photo Albums — Unlike the bulky flip albums of the sixties or the sticky “magnetic” albums of the 1980s, today’s experts recommend albums with acid-free, lignin-free pages to prevent photos from yellowing or deteriorating, and photo corners or sleeves to hold the print photos in place without any adhesive touching them.
- Photo Boxes — Step up from shoe boxes and seek out acid-free, lignin-free photo boxes that store the photos vertically (and safely), with labeled dividers and indexes to keep prints organized and categorized.
-
- Archival Storage Envelopes and Sleeves — For safe, long-term storage, select archival-quality polypropylene, polyethylene, or polyester sleeves and archival envelopes to create additional protection within the storage boxes or albums you use.
- Don’t make the mistake of keeping negatives with prints. If you don’t have a digital backup of your favorite photos, your negatives are your backups. If your photos were damaged by humidity, heat, predation, menacing toddlers, or other dangers, wouldn’t you want the negatives somewhere safe so you could reproduce the pictures?
- Safeguard print photos — Whichever of the above options you choose, remember to:
- Choose climate-controlled storage — Storage print photos in a cool, dry environment, and away from potential predation by insects or “critters.” Avoid unfinished garages and basements, the place where, too many people stick their print photo collection: out of sight, out of mind, and out of luck.
- Think about hidden sources of moisture. — What’s behind the closets or cabinets where you store your photo collections? If pipes to bathrooms, kitchens, or laundry rooms run through those walls, a burst pipe could destroy decades of family photographic history.
- Digitize some portion of your photo collection — Whether you decide to keep some or all of your prints, and whether you DIY or use photo organizing software, scan digital copies of the photos that mean the most to you and your family (and maintain backups via some combination of cloud storage, external hard drives, or other external media.)
- Display beloved photos. There isn’t enough wall space in your home to display every picture you own. You’ll have to select favorite prints. Whatever single-photo or multi-picture frames, you’ll want:
- UV-protective glass shields your photos from direct sunlight, which would cause prints to fade
- Acid-free matting ensures your photos are protected from the damaging effects of acid on prints.
GET EXPERT HELP DOWNSIZING, ORGANIZING, AND STORING PHOTOS
I’m a Certified Professional Organizer®, and I sometimes work with clients to help them reduce the excess in their analog and digital photo collections, offering an unbiased, discerning eye.
I also help facilitate digitizing their photos by matchmaking them with my excellent NAPO-Georgia colleagues Jiffy Page of Pixorium and David McDonough of Modern Image Atlanta. (Pixorium focuses on helping preserve family history through digitizing photos and creating story books, while Modern Image Atlanta keys in on digital conversion of personal and business photos and documents.)
I’ve also helped clients set up digital photo frames. Due to my years-long background with one client’s family photos, I even recently created a 50th anniversary digital slide show spanning almost 75 years of the husband and wife’s time on earth and with one another.
However, I’m not a photo organizing specialist. If I have any sort of complicated photo-related client issue, I’ll seek the assistance of one my specialist colleagues, like:
Andi Willis of Good Life Photo Solutions
Isabelle Dervaux of Isabelle Dervaux Family Photo Curator
Laurie Neumann of The Innovative Organizer
You can find professional organizers who specialize in organizing photos through the search directory at the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals (NAPO) website.
Additionally, the The Photo Managers (formerly the Association of Personal Photo Organizers (APPO)) is a stellar source for finding professionals who can help you downsize your photo collection, organize the pictures, and best display and share them. Check out their blog.
For those inclined to organize family photos on their own, avail yourself of books like:
Photo Organizing Made Easy: Going from Overwhelmed to Overjoyed by Cathi Nelson (founder of The Photo Managers)
What’s a Photo Without the Story: How to Create Your Family Legacy by Hazel Thornton (beloved friend of the blog)
Declutter Your Photo Life: Curating, Preserving, Organizing, and Sharing Your Photos by Adam Pratt
What if, after going through all of your photos, you still have too many “beats me” shots or “OK, but I just don’t care” photos?
WHAT TO DO WITH THE PHOTO PRINTS YOU DON’T WANT
The concept of “unwanted” photographs is complex.
After all, there’s a huge difference between a photo requiring you to squint to see whether it’s soup or a clogged drain vs. a picture of you with an abusive former partner. There’s a huge chasm between a blurry shot of the side of your neighbor’s car and a photo of unidentified party revelers.
Let’s start with what to do with print photos you don’t exposed and those you think nobody else would want.
Discard Unwanted Print Photos
I get it if that the idea freaks you out. I’m not saying to toss a good photo of Grandma into the trash along with the potato peels.
But all your blurry prints? The photos where you can’t identify a single human being, or pet, or location? A shot of the carpet you almost bought in 1972 but didn’t? The picture of your house after a blizzard that looks like every picture of every blizzard since you’ve been alive?
Where was this? Who are these people?
Are you having trouble getting rid of “worthless” photos? Here’s a neat trick. Take the print photo and snap a digital photo of it with your phone. Now, look at the digital shot. If you’d just taken that today, or yesterday, or last week, and were clearing out your photo stream, would you be inclined to keep the digital shot?
If you wouldn’t keep the digital version, let go of the print version. (Sometimes it helps to go through the process with a less sentimental friend, or your professional organizer.)
Photos that represent nothing and are meaningful to nobody can be tossed. Yes, really.
Shred Sensitive Print Photos
This is the go-to if you have a photo you no longer want, but also wouldn’t want strangers to get their hands on it.
I know what you’re thinking, and that does includes naughty photos. (I suspect that such photos became MUCH more common after the birth of digital photography.) But that’s not the only category you might want to shred.
Some people — and not just celebrities — would shred blurry or unsatisfactory print photos of their children to keep strangers from handling them.
You might also come across photos where you (or a loved one) doesn’t look great. Maybe it’s weight. Maybe it’s a bad haircut. Perhaps it was during a time or heartache or recovering from a long illness (or treatment of one). It’s perfectly OK to let go of photos that make you (or someone else) feel bad. To keep an insensitive person (or, paparazzi) from “rescuing” such photos from the trash, shred them first.
Discarding and shredding covers photos you don’t want out in the world, but what about photos you just have no need or desire, but you bear no antipathy towards them?
Give The Print Photos To Someone Who Will Value Them
If you don’t want a photo, but there’s nothing inherently “wrong” with it (however you define that), give it away:
- Send prints to the person in the shots — How delighted someone might be to know you came across a fun photo of them from years ago and wanted to share it! Turn it into a postcard or pop it into an envelope.
- Share the photo(s) with the family archivist — Does someone in your family serve this role officially? Perhaps you’ve got a distant cousin who would be charmed by shots of other cousins or great-greats? Just because they don’t excite you, future relatives might someday be pleased to have these photos in the family.
- Stick them on the company bulletin board — Chances are good that your current or former workplace has an unofficial historian. Even if you barely remember who the people in the print photos may be — maybe you were a summer intern thirty years ago? — someone at ACME might be thrilled to include shots in a company newsletter, history wall, or annual report. (Know anyone who has worked at the National Institutes of Health? Their NIH Stetten Museum is collecting photo donations!)
Donate Your Print Photos for Posterity
You might be wondering — if you don’t want a photo, why would anyone else?
The answer is, a lot of people, organizations, and projects. The key is the content of photos.
Years ago, I helped an author organize her book research. One day, we took a “field trip” to look at some items that she’d dug out of storage. We found an envelope filled with photos from the 1940s. The author’s father had fought in WWII and took photos of the liberation of concentration camps. After some discussion, we called a nearby Jewish Cultural Center and set up and appointment for her to meet with the director. Eventually, she donated the photos, which they used in a Holocaust memorial exhibit and then forwarded them to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
In another example, a client had photos, programs, and dance cards from mid-20th-century dances at an all-Black high school. The school no longer exists, but someone pointed us toward the high school sorority that sponsored the dance. The nearest local chapter appreciated the offer of photos, but lacked the space or personnel to handle them. However, they referred us to the national headquarters where the items were archived and displayed.
Photo contents will dictate possibilities. Talk with friends (or a professional organizer) to get ideas as to who may benefit from — and be delighted by — photos in your possession. Here are a handful of ideas, and I welcome you adding more in the comments section:
Libraries
Many library systems have local history or genealogy sections and welcome donations of old photographs, especially if they are geographically relevant.
Museums and Local Historical Societies
Local, regional, and national museums might be interested in photographs that depict historical events, places, or notable figures. Your local historical society (or one local to where a photo was taken) might be thrilled to preserve local history through your your prints.
Genealogical Societies
These organizations often accept photographs that could be useful to others researching family histories. The Society of American Archivists has an article, Donating Your Personal or Family Records to a Repository, which may help spark your imagination.
Universities and Colleges
Was your grandmother one of the first women to attend a particular college after it went co-ed? Perhaps your great-uncle played on a sports team at his university. If you’ve got photos that have clearly identifiable landmarks from a particular university, particularly if it’s in good condition and from a fairly bygone era, the university’s archivist or college historian might find the pictures useful for an exhibition or collection.
The same goes for anything at a college or university related to an event or organization. Got a photo of the marching band from 1972 performing at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade or a theater department’s production in 1956? They may love it! When I’m long gone, perhaps the Cornell University International Living Center might enjoy access to a photo of the graduates of the class of 1989 lined up in the Flag Room.
Paper Doll and fellow Class of 1989 Cornell ILC’ers
Content need not be university-specific. If your alma mater or any other institute of higher learning has history or anthropology departments, they may accept photograph donations for research purposes.
Government Archives
Local, regional, state or national archives may be interested in photographs that have historical significance. Obviously it’s best if you have context (diaries, notes on the reverse of the print photo), but if your print looks like it shows a significant event, see if you can share it.
Military and Veteran’s Organizations, VFW Posts, and Military Museums
Starting in the late 1930s, camera equipment became much smaller and more popular. American GIs took a lot of snapshots during World War II, the Korean Conflict, and the Vietnam War. If you’ve got family members who were veterans, you likely have print photos.
If you have any context or clarifying information and from what military division or post they came, don’t hesitate to see if there’s interest from your local VFW post, or check the donations policiesof groups linked below:
- Naval History and Heritage Command
- Veterans History Project at the Library of Congress
- National Museum of the United States Air Force
- Pritzker Military Museum and Library
- Tennessee State Library Korean War Veterans Project
Greek Organizations
We tend to think of Greek fraternities and sororities as being college entities, but as my client’s story above noted, there were Greek organizations in high schools from the late 1800s through the mid 1970s. Here’s Paper Mommy and sorority sisters at a dance, circa 1953.
Special Interest Groups
Groups focused on specific themes (e.g., military history, railroads, architecture, Elvis) might find your photographs valuable.
Don’t assume only big city topics are of interest. Were your parents (or grandparents) or their siblings active in 4H Clubs or local cooperative extension services? Their photos may be perfect for an organization’s website or educational archives.
The National Wildlife Federation
Do you have photos of North American wildlife or wild places? The National Wildlife Federation is eager to accept donations of photos and photo usage rights to help raise funds for conservation.
(This probably isn’t the kind of wild life they’re seeking, but Paper Doll is an organizer and child of concrete, not a wildlife photographer.)
Online Projects
Websites dedicated to preserving history, such as the Digital Public Library of America (DLPA) (supporting education, scholarly research, and family research) or the Library of Congress’s digital collections, might accept copies of your prints for digital purposes. They probably won’t care about your eighth birthday party unless someone (else) significant attended, but if individuals in your family photos relate to significant events (or lived through significant eras), your contribution might be valuable.
The Photo Vault is an online project with the following mission:
Our ultimate mission is to preserve photographic history around the world for future generations….It is our mission to digitize and record lost, forgotten and otherwise discarded photographs for years to come. Our efforts are focused on preserving old negatives, developing old film, digitizing photos, postcards, journals and old letters, preserving and conserving them, and creating a record of the people, places, events and activities of our human race. After all, it’s our story!
Non-profit Organizations
Non-profits focusing on preservation, history, or culture might be generally interested in your photographs; if family members volunteered for these organizations, they may want them for organizational archives.
Authors, Bloggers, and Influencers
Do you have photos related to a favorite author or blogger’s sphere of influence? Do you follow a YouTuber or TikTok star who uses interesting photos for the backgrounds of their videos? For instance, an influencer who talks about wedding fashions might find this photo of my great-aunt’s late-1920s wedding intriguing.
(No, Paper Mommy isn’t tossing the print; this is just an example.)
How to Donate Photos
Obviously, you’re not going to just package up these photos and drop them on the doorstep of an organization.
First, contact a representative through email or by phone to describe the contents and context of the photographs you possess.
Next, ask if they are accepting donations. If they’re at a distance, offer to digitize and send a handful of photos to help them identify what you have.
If they’re unable to use your photos, inquire as to whether their parent or sibling organizations, or some expert they know, might find the photos useful.
Donating your unwanted photos ensures they will be wanted, preserved, appreciated, and accessible for future generations.
Paper Doll Post:
Pictures are such a difficult thing to deal with. I love the distinctions you make when talking about deleting digital photos and tossing prints. One of my clients (when I told her it was OK to toss the copies of a photo) said that it felt like she was throwing the person away. We did exactly as you suggested and mailed the copies of the photo to other family members who, my client decided, may want it.
Another client has boxes of framed photos. He does not want to remove them from the frames to keep them safely. We are setting up a rotation schedule for them.
All your suggestions for sending the photos on to those who may be able to use them are fabulous!
Thank you for all your great research and resources.
I’m glad to have your anecdote as another data point for handling letting go of prints. We humans are funny creatures; I bet your client never has trouble deleting digital photos.
The framed photos thing is interesting, because your client would surely hang the framed photos if he wanted to see them enough. A rotation schedule, like a museum’s rotating exhibits, sounds like a balanced approach.
Thank you for your kind words and for reading!
Great post, Julie! We had all of our children’s photos digitized when we developed them from 1999 to 2014. My husband then took all the CDs and added them to our family hard drive. Some CDs were damaged, others were not, and we were able to get the majority of our kid’s celebrations digitized pretty quickly. So, after we reviewed them and ensured they looked good digitally, we removed the box of CDs. It was so liberating.
Sounds great! Our family only had print photos from the 1940s until the early 2000s, when I got a digital camera (but I was the only one). I’ve only had phone photos since 2016, so almost everything I’ve got is print-only. I lazily take snapshots of print photos, but eventually need to scan everything. I can only imagine how far behind I’d feel if I also had CDs of photos!
Thanks for sharing your experience and for reading!
My photos span both physical and digital. I have to admit that I am not as good as I should be about just deleting bad photos. I do try. My husband just keeps them all, and even uploads them all to our shared family album. I’m not a fan of this plan, because it is too many. I always say, “Too much of anything is hard to enjoy.” Nevertheless, there it is.
I think you’ve put together a very good list of possible places to give your photos. That feels a bit overwhelming to me, but I might make the effort if I had a really good photo that I didn’t want. Otherwise, it feels like a lot of work. That’s just me.
This is an important post because pretty much every client I have has this struggle. Love Isabelle and Andi – highly recommend!
Too much of anything IS hard to enjoy. You are so right.
Certainly, the point isn’t to get rid of all your unwanted photos by donation. All those bad shots and duplicates and misery-making pics can be shredded and tossed. But for the photos that *feel* valuable, even if you don’t have any desire to keep them, letting that value belong to somewhere/someone else is a nice option to have.
Thank you for your feedback and for reading!
Great post!
I wish all of the historical photos we can’t keep would go to the right places, like Historical Societies, to be preserved.
Another place to try is dealers of vernacular photography who might be interested in vintage collections. Lots of collectors are selling or buying old family prints. Just look at eBay or Esty. But I can understand that it might be weird for your family photos to end up there…
Thanks for the kind words, and you are so right about selling photos. I’d originally figured I’d touch on that, but as it was, I had to whittle this down from almost 4000 words, so I’m SO glad that you made this point. I suspect that it would be easier to sell family photos where the members of the family aren’t particularly identifiable anymore, or are obscured or less of the focus than statues, landmarks, or nature. (Though I guess some buyers might use the photos for retro advertising or content.) It’s an intriguing idea.
Thank you for reading, Isabelle!
We’ve been going through my mom’s 40+ photo albums and digitizing what we want. When I say “we”, it’s been a project for my husband and I, not my siblings! They’ll reap the reward when it’s done.
It a job! Something that should not be left until you have time, because we all know the time never comes.
You’re absolutely right, but so many people feel like there will always be time later on. You and your husband are definitely going to deserve some bonus points for all this work.
Thanks for reading.
Getting film developed and printed was fairly expensive, so I imagine people might have been reluctant to part with any of the photos. And now we look at those photos and think someone kept it all these decades, it must have significance!
I have a terrible photo I took of the CN Tower when it was going up, but it marks a moment in history, so I keep it.
I’ve also got photos from my parents where I can’t identify anyone (or a house), but someone else might be able to, especially since I’m starting to connect with distant relatives who just might recognize someone. It’s really tough, but you’ve offered some excellent tips and resources here – especially Hazel’s book, which I’ve already read twice.
You’re so right. There was such an *investment* in tangible phones. But then we have to remember the Sunk Cost fallacy.
Do you feel emotionally tied to that CN Tower-in-progress photo? Does it feel more important to you than one you might find on the web? I think we need to be in the habit of asking those questions.
And yes, the “relative” thing makes the whole thing relative, pun intended. That’s why giving them to someone who WILL value them is such a good option. But here’s a question. If a third-cousin twice removed said, “Oh, that photo? That’s John Jacob Jingleheimer-Schmidt,” but that person, now identified, still doesn’t mean anything to you, would you want to keep the photo?
It’s all so complex! (And yes, Hazel’s book rocks! As does Hazel!)