Cloud Storage, Negatives, "About Schmidt" (Jack Nicholson)

The 2002 film, "About Schmidt", profiled an insurance executive, proud of his actuarial legacy, who leaves his job (reluctantly), finds his life work in a dumpster during a visit to the workplace, and embarks on a journey unencumbered.  It's a tough trip.

With regrets at mentioning the '27-year gig', I must.  Had I simply printed out all that was important (most of which is not) or made copies and placed in boxes to accompany me on 'my journey' they'd certainly been dumped on the desert by now.  Unfortunately I uploaded it all to a couple of fee-based cloud storage sites.  Almost three years have passed and I don't want to pay for any further storage and decided to download it to storage at home (and forego concerns of backup).

Each of those documents was important for content, creative, innovative work, etc., or something that I might need on my next gig.  Austin Kleon's books have made it very clear that even creative people steal from others and leveraging work from one organization to another, while perhaps questionable, would be creative...and creative is always good.  So goes the justification.

Reading each document before determining it's retention in this 'almost three years later' pass has caused me to smile, chuckle, reflect and be annoyed at some of the same roadblocks and tools (that's 'tool' in a negative personality sense).

This afternoon my daughter asked me if disposable cameras were still available.  She talked about the process of taking in a camera or film, waiting for the film to be processed, deciding on 3x5, 4x6, matte or glossy and then waiting.  Digital has made us all film processors as much as photographers.  What we lack is that box of prints and negatives that sit in a closet for years, until we die, and our relatives pick through them, remarking about changes, parties, events and vacations sites of past.  With digital we rarely print.  Dying without a URL, user name and password leaves our image legacy in the cloud.  It's probably not even deleted but remaining without access.

Negatives were always a challenge to review.  In the lab we'd do proof sheets, aggregations of small images, select from that and printer larger that we wished to print, mount, distribute and enjoy.  It would appear that I'm doing some sort of electronic proof sheet (no, not a thumbnail).

It seems that my electronic work legacy is all about negatives, too.  I have to open them and transport them and that causes me to review and revisit.  My childless 100 year old aunt asks who would want to look at all her photographs but struggles to throw them out (ironic even more as her vision fades and she cannot see what she has).  We hold on to things under the illusion that we'll use them, need them, share them or that someone else will want them.

After moving most of these files from a fee-based storage to a storage device in the office (it feels like moving valuables from a temperature and humidity controlled storage facility to a damp garage) I wish someone would have simply checked all the boxes and hit 'Delete.'  'Someone' always limits forward progress.