archivism
The Wisdom of the Bankers Box
Please allow me to relay a bit of old-man nerdery today: Look to the Bankers Box. When my mom died, and we had to move my dad out of his home of 50 years, I was tasked with salvaging as much of their documents, photos, and keepsakes as possible. They
A Lesser Minimalism
Minimizing your processes is more important than minimizing the amount of your objects. Objects are often just the byproduct a process and a reflection of its health. But there are painful places where the two ideas meet. One of the first nerdy courses I bought, many years ago, was MacSparky’
Is plain text best?
Derek Sivers [https://sive.rs/plaintext] and Patrick Rhone [https://www.patrickrhone.net/11399-2/], two of my favorite writers, have just posted about how the simple text file is the most stable, malleable format for storing your thoughts and work. This is probably the most widely accepted truth among nerds
Digitizing My Van Halen Archives
I have boxes full of research from previous books and articles, especially from my days as a music journalist (I still own MusicJournalist.com if anyone is interested). I was putting off digitizing my mountains of articles, documents, letters, and manuscripts until I had a good high-speed scanner. It’s
The Resurrection of DVDs
I will admit to laughing at people who collect DVDs. I’ve considered it a giant waste of money and space. But now I’m started to wonder if I was wrong. Samsung announced recently that they’re done producing new Blu-Ray players [https://www.theverge.com/2019/2/17/
Organizing Your Paper Photos
If you were alive before the 2005ish, you probably have boxes of old prints and negatives rotting away in a basement or a closet. You've been meaning to organize it, but the project seems overwhelming. Believe me, I've been there. I've had to organize my own photos and the photos
What Film Does that Digital Can't
Lesser photography doesn’t necessarily mean analogue photography, it just means finding ways to boost your creativity by recognizing the power of constraints, editing and storytelling. For some photographers, that means choosing film over pixels. Why? There are still some things film does better, while remaining a constraint. There are
"Why I Print"
David duChemin [http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/2012/03/why-i-print/] seconds a sentiment I wrote about [http://www.alesserphotographer.com/post/16265202789/pass-along-your-best-stories] a little while ago: > “I encourage you, even if you never print at home, to print your work. The artist’s life is about creating and sharing,
Pass Along Your Best Stories
Images corrupt and apps are unreliable. Your backups may not be backing up what you thought. Websites suffer neglect. A few years after you die, your files may not even be readable, if someone even cares to look after them. The truth is, there’s no such thing as an