THE PRINT

When thinking of a tangible photographic vessel, first and foremost the print comes to mind. On most occasions, a print is made up of paper, plus ink or chemicals, which divulge the tones of the image.

The photographic print exists in many forms. The print can be classified as a fine art object, read and commoditised along paintings, sculptures, and more, in an art gallery. The print is innately an historical and cultural artefact, preserving a moment in time on its surface, sometimes created by someone with forethought and sense of archival preservation. The print is taken as authority in the identification of someone on documents such as passports and drivers licences. The physical print is always a tactile, sensory object, it can be owned, given, bought or sold, it can be lost, damaged, or deteriorate over time, and it can also be wholly destroyed. The print is a photograph, a finished image, beyond a negative or digital file, affixed to a surface for future viewing, to reach this process it has often survived rounds of curation and elimination, before being deemed worthy of printing. Printed photographs have traditional...

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“The material things that accompany us on our journeys through the decades will often outlive us, and they are where we keep the stories we will pass down... a lot of the paper photographs will endure both in museums and in private hands. Indeed they may become more valued as they are recognised to be old, fragile, and rare, but we may forget how to look at them as they were once looked at.”

EDITH AND BESSIE

Conversations with my sister recently reignighted my role as family historian. It’s been more than a few years since I’ve actively researched ancestors, known and unknown — I was surprised at how quickly, and easily, I fell back down the rabbit hole, into a wonderland of information. I was particularly delighted to discover photographs I’d never seen, of relatives I’ve never met. While I do wonder about the joy these photographs bring me, I’m curiouser (and curiouser) about the journey of these photographs, from their past, into my future.