Is there any value in a large amount of negatives and if not how do I destroy them?

[FuzzyButt]

I had been a wedding photographer for about 29 years and retired about 12 years ago. About 10 years before that I had stopped shooting weddings so we are talking about 15-20 years since the last wedding. I have been trying to contact the wedding clients or their families for a large number of years now with very little results. I was willing to sell them the negatives for $25.00 just so they wouldn't be destroyed. What the few reasons I have heard is that if they wanted a copy they just scanned the photos they had and it was done. I tried to explain that there might have been family members that didn't make the final album but no one cared.

I am getting on in years and want to make sure that these negatives don't end up on the web for whatever reason someone would have to do it. I have no family to pass these on to and the wife would have enough troubles with all the other stuff to clean out besides having to take care of these. So my question is 1. Is there any value to negatives? and 2. What is a good way to destroy them?

 

[hotdog321]

I had been a wedding photographer for about 29 years and retired about 12 years ago. About 10 years before that I had stopped shooting weddings so we are talking about 15-20 years since the last wedding. I have been trying to contact the wedding clients or their families for a large number of years now with very little results. I was willing to sell them the negatives for $25.00 just so they wouldn't be destroyed. What the few reasons I have heard is that if they wanted a copy they just scanned the photos they had and it was done. I tried to explain that there might have been family members that didn't make the final album but no one cared.

I am getting on in years and want to make sure that these negatives don't end up on the web for whatever reason someone would have to do it. I have no family to pass these on to and the wife would have enough troubles with all the other stuff to clean out besides having to take care of these. So my question is 1. Is there any value to negatives? and 2. What is a good way to destroy them?

Hm, you bring up a very good point. You might consider donating them to the local library --here in Houston we actually have a building dedicated to storing images like this. Today's snapshots can be a historical goldmine 20 or 50 or 100 years from now.

If nobody wants them, another approach is to render them (and prints) for their silver content by calling a local company. We used to do this for our old prints and junker film scraps back at my newspaper. I don't know if there is any money in this, but at least the sliver would be recycled.

--
photojournalist
http://craighartley.zenfolio.com/

 

[tamaraw35]

I agree with hotdog321; if the original clients don't have any interest, donate them to a museum or public institute. While they don't seem important now, in 50 or 100 years they will have become valuable historic documents preserving the culture and customs of the people. This would be a great resource for anthroplogists and other researchers and a shame to waste.

If you really want to destroy them, I would imagine that a shredder or fire would work, although burning might give off toxic fumes.

 

[Mark S Abeln]

I think that the negative archive of a professional photographer has cultural value that far exceeds the value of silver in them.

A large library, university, or historical society might be interested.

 

[Bob]

I would just toss them in the trash and be done with it and move on.

I don’t disagree with the other folks, but it just boils down to “effort” vs. “who cares”.

 

[mamallama]

If they are mostly local to you and of weddings at places like churches, clubs, etc. you might donate them to the places of the wedding ceremonies who might have an archive of past events.

And who knows, I you are giving them to a church or other tax exempt organization, you may even get a charity donation for tax purposes.

 

[sierrascale]

I would just toss them in the trash and be done with it and move on.

I don’t disagree with the other folks, but it just boils down to “effort” vs. “who cares”.

Agree. Waste of time to do anything else with them. His wife will throw them in the trash after he's gone anyway.

Some people think old stuff is valuable, but after having to deal with both my mother's and my mother-in-law's huge hoards of stuff recently. you soon run out of time and money to try to sell or give away things.

The other thing is that people think you can "donate" stuff to museums, libraries, etc. No, you can't. they don't want a bunch of crap to deal with. Been there...

 

[Jonsi]

Paper shredder.

 

[khunpapa]

. I tried to explain that there might have been family members that didn't make the final album but no one cared.

They are the "owne"r of the image. No one,care. Why do you?


--
Flashes of my Memory.

 

[tamaraw35]

I would just toss them in the trash and be done with it and move on.

I don’t disagree with the other folks, but it just boils down to “effort” vs. “who cares”.

Agree. Waste of time to do anything else with them. His wife will throw them in the trash after he's gone anyway.

Some people think old stuff is valuable, but after having to deal with both my mother's and my mother-in-law's huge hoards of stuff recently. you soon run out of time and money to try to sell or give away things.

We aren't talking monetary value here, just cultural and historical value. Having cleaned up after family members before, I understand your sentiment, but I think that a professional photography portfolio is worth preserving. The national archives are literally full of this stuff.

The other thing is that people think you can "donate" stuff to museums, libraries, etc. No, you can't. they don't want a bunch of crap to deal with. Been there...

Fair point, it mainly depends upon what you are trying to donate and the institute in question. Different groups will be interested in different things and some stuff just might not be in demand. Smaller or more local groups might not have the resources to store or preserve artifacts. Try a couple of places to gauge interest.