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“To collect photographs is to collect the world. Movies and television light up walls, flicker, and go out; but with still photographs, the image is also an object — easy to carry about, accumulate, store.” – Susan Sontag

They are artifacts of our existence. They are moments, memories and meaning.

Here’s a simple but wonderful example.

This is my great-grandparents getting goofy in a photo booth.

It was taken in a matter of minutes in the 1960s, yet the image is as alive today as it was back then.

I am so lucky to have it. ~ shared by @evangeline_thefallofeve

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

My grandmother was a true classic.

She didn’t want to be called Grandma. Her name was Barbara, but I couldn’t pronounce it properly as a child. So, she became “Baba.” She died when I was very little so I never got to know her as well as I would have wished. But my Mom shares with me the memory of Baba taking her and her sister to San Francisco for the day. In the early 1950’s, the city was a much fancier place, so they would get dressed up in their nicest clothes and take the F train across the single-story Bay Bridge from Berkeley, where they lived.

They would go shopping at Macy’s and get ice cream sundays at Bloom’s in the basement.

After exploring the city, they would finish their day at the Top of the Mark with a dinner overlooking the entire city.

This simple story means so much to me because San Francisco will always have a piece of my heart. I lived there for five years and I consider it my second home. There’s a piece of Baba there too, and a piece of our family legacy. ~ shared by @sarah_inpursuit

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

“Human beings need to tell stories. Stories are not simply nice things to have; they are essential survival tools. And yes, the stories we tell ourselves are just as important as the stories we tell other people.” -Hugh MacLeod

Meet my great-grand-uncles, John and Patrick Murray.

In 1886, John (left) sold some of their father’s cattle and ran off to New York City with the money. He opened Murray’s Hotel on 42nd street, then married, had a family and died in 1916.

Murray’s Hotel is long gone, but Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum is located on the former site of the hotel today. ~ shared by @davidlewisgunning

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

How cool were they?

The “Pan-man” and artist (my Grandfather) with the Tailor (my Grandmother). This photo was taken in Trinidad, circa 1959.

My Grandfather played the Steel Drum, or “Pan,” which is the reason for the name “Pan Man.” The first steel drum, or pan, was invented around World War II in Trinidad.

My grandparents are the reason I draw, design, love fashion, menswear, music, and play pan and everything else. ~ shared by @ms_natalya_m

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

“Your own photography is never enough. Every photographer who has lasted has depended on other people’s pictures too – photographs that may be public or private, serious or funny – but that carry with them a reminder of community.” -Robert Adams

Our granddaughter Emma, who is four years-old, is learning to swim.
She’s quite the little swimmer.

We’ve told her she must have some DNA from her great-grandad, who was captain of the swim team at Yale in 1926.

I scanned one of his team photos (he’s here in the center) so Emma’s coach can use it as a little encouragement and inspiration. ~shared by @ned_bunnell

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum

What treasures wait patiently in boxes?

This is one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen. My mom and I found this while digging through a box of old photos which I’d never seen before.

These are my grandparents, Don and Joan Gulick, on their wedding day, August 21st in the early 1950’s.

My grandparents are two of the most important people in the world to me; they helped raise my sister and me.
My grandmother died 15 years ago, so anything I can find of hers is something I treasure, but this picture is something special.

It’s so beautifully candid and captures how in love and happy they were. They were married almost 50 years when she died and still just as in love as the day this was taken. ~shared by @jurassikate

#savefamilyphotos #familyphotos #familyphoto #ancestry #familyhistory #oldfamilyphotos #vintagephotos #filmisnotdead #vintagephoto #oldphoto #oldphotos #ancestors #familyalbum