I lost 40,000 pics …

Like most people, I thought having my pictures saved as digital files meant my family’s memories were safe. Not long ago, without warning, my hard drive failed and I lost more than 40,000 photographs of our trips, birthdays and special events.

What I still had were images created on film, along with printed albums and framed family portraits already living in our home. They are now our only photographic record. That experience profoundly changed how I see photographs. We don’t need more digital files of ourselves. We need real photographs on our walls or in albums that carry meaning, history, and truth.

I know that people will say, I should have known better, that all hard drives fail. Best to keep them in the cloud, or have multiple redundant hard drives that you swap out with new ones on a regular basis. That all makes complete sense, but to do so on a regular basis is a pile of work…

I will certainly keep my important pics on a cloud-based storage server now, there is no doubt. But I will also make a conscious effort to print more pictures, hang them in frames, store them in photo boxes, or make albums and books. Keeping pics on a server somewhere might be more secure but it certainly does not allow one to enjoy your pics much.

Creating art we can touch and see is a much different experience. Our lives are our art. When we create artwork that reflects our relationships, our stories and our shared history, we strengthen connections, create belonging, and give our families a sense of permanence.

Our faithful dog Buddy, doing what Buddy likes to do best …