Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/07

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Subject: [Leica] Re: dis-intermediation Comparative shredders!
From: George Huczek <ghuczek@sk.sympatico.ca>
Date: Tue, 07 Mar 2000 20:44:03 -0600

At 12:42 PM 07/03/2000 -0800, Mark Rabiner wrote:
 >I often get calls from long lost clients who want a print from a very old
shoot. I
>consider it a basic cost of doing business and nothing less. BOY are they
happy
>when they see THOSE images!
::::::::::::
Dan C. replied:
I can do what I want with my negatives.  If I want to keep them forever,
throw them out, burn them, shove them up my a**, that's my business.   They
are mine, not yours or anyone elses.  Was it Brett Weston who destroyed the
bulk of his negatives before he died?  Good for him!  
::::::::::::

Last year I had a call from a woman.  I had photographed her daughter's
wedding many years earlier.  The daughter was dying of cancer.  They wanted
a large reprint of a wedding photo.  I made it for them.

   Wedding photos are an important part of a family's history.  As time
passes, some of those images take on a greater significance.  This is even
more true when a family suffers from some tragic loss, like the loss of a
loved one, or some natural disaster which wipes out all of their personal
belongings.  If you have ever watched victims of tornadoes rummaging
through what is left of their belongings, you will notice that quite often
they are looking for their photographs in the rubble.

I have to agree strongly with Mark on this point.  Discarding negatives or
transparencies is not a sound practice from a business point of view, and
it is unprofessional.  As difficult as it might be to store that material,
it is something that a photographer should do.