The Lost Generation...
I hate to say it, but I am guilty of contributing to the lost generation....
No, I am not talking about the WWI lost generation.
The lost generation are those that have been trapped into thinking, "I will print these out sometime later." The "it's on my phone and never leaves your phone." I am part of the problem with this digital age, and its started a little over 10 years ago, before smartphones were the "thing."
Photographers across the globe were loosing hope because everything was delivered "digitally" knocking down the value of what we do best. Is is cheaper? Well yes and no. Yes its cheaper to hand over a CD for 5.99 rather than spending over $500 on cost of goods but the reality is photographers are now seeing the detrimental effects of delivering everything digitally. That devastation is "technical difficulty."
USB's, hard drives, computers, phones and you name it are great ways to store tons of digital photos. But what happens when you loose those little things? What happens when you go to plug in your hard drive and BOOM NOTHING! You guys this has actually happened to me! And thankfully I had insurance that saved me THOUSANDS of dollars to replace what I almost lost.
Growing up, I didn't have discs. I had film. (I still have undeveloped film). I would take that film and bring into the the lab and it was actually kind of fun & embarrassing to see what would come back. I can still remember the way it smelled. I have photo albums, boxes and boxes of photos that when a family member is looking to celebrate or mourn those boxes are what I dig in first. My children, at least until recently do not have that. They will probably someday be able to gain access to Facebook and see some really great and embarrassing things, but we frankly don't know what the future looks like. But I can tell you this.. physical, printed photographs have already stood the test of time. Some 200+ years of time! Tangible, holdable, framable and huggable photographs are surviving and its because those prints hold value to someone.
It's pretty hard to value something on a screen. Not to mention, no one wants to come over to your house and sit down in front of your computer and look at photos. They want to look at ones they can hold in their hands, see on the wall all at once, ones they can touch and admire. Ones they can ask, "who is that, where was this and OH WOW!
I am taking a stand to print out these memories for my kids! They love looking at photos printed out and seeing old ones of their ancestors. I have already lost an entire hard drive of my first borns photographs and all I have are the ones I thankfully printed. I don't want my children to be part of the lost generation. The fact is that 70% of people NEVER print their photos! 70%!!!
This is why I take the time to create and print beautiful images for you. It's one less thing you have to do and your photos have a 99% better chance of being displayed if I print for you. Don't worry, every print I sell comes with its digital copy (so you can archive it and share it online). I am a photographer who is standing up and saying ENOUGH! No more "just the digitals" YOU GET BOTH! AS YOU SHOULD!
Do something radical. Make room on a physical wall in your home (not a Facebook one) and hang up some old and new photographs, get your favorites printed out.
Join the movement and print your photos! #printmovement #lostgeneration
Where should you print your photos? Try mpix.com! They are speedy and affordable!
