Caroline Fraser - an ordinary life: October 2024

Boat reflections, New Zealand

I have a problem. A big problem.

I have had to replace my ageing and failing mac with a brand new version, but for 2 weeks it has been sitting unopened in its box. My other half (OH) keeps asking me when I am going to open it. I reply 'when I am ready '.

The reason that I am not ready is because I possess way too many photos, and the thought of sorting them out to get them safely stored on a combination of the new mac and external hard drives feels like an organisational mountain right now. I am not ready to face the mountain; it feels huge.

This is all my own fault. I have my images neatly organised into folders of events and year, but I rarely cull my images. Actually never. Each time I sit down to attempt this, I get drawn into a trip down memory lane. I find images that remind me of all the projects I have thought about over the years, and after deleting maybe five or six I end up processing an old one, or feeling so overwhelmed by the enormity of the task that I give up and find something else to do, even cleaning.....

Winter trees, Stanley park, Vancouver

I have a technique for finding images that are buried under a pile of 66,999 images, and that I have totally forgotten about.

I type today's date into my library and look for files that have a name that includes the numbers in the date. For example, yesterday was the 9th of October, so I type 910 into the search panel and up pop all the images with 910 as part of their filename. I find it a good way to look back through the thousands, without any bias . A lot of surprises pop up.

For example the image below is from a walk that I took in my local woods during which I chucked photographs of nature into the pond and hung them from fences and trees. Yes, I know that sounds crazy. But I had fun doing it, and I cant really recall why I felt this urge.
I probably had an idea for a new project, but as with many of my ideas, it went nowhere.

And that is OK.

Life would be a lot duller without a few crazy moments alone in the woods.

Also from this '910' search are all of the photos included in this blog article. Below is another one where I question my sanity. At the time I was studying for an MA in book art, and that did tip me into a slightly deranged state of mind. I never did complete the MA, but that's another story.
Life is too short to spend time not enjoying learning.........

'hello Liezel' on my washing line

And then there was another burning desire fulfilled; to hang ribbons from a tree and capture the effect of the wind. That was a one day wonder, and no birds or bushes were harmed in the process.

ribbons in the wind

.Some incredibly happy memories appear in the search.

For all of these images I remember so well the taking. The making.

They trigger memories that were locked away, possibly for ever.

Several are from my first artist residency where I wandered the streets and footpaths taking hundreds of photos of water., and which led to the creation of my book 'If I only had more time'. Three weeks went so quickly, and I wished I could have stayed longer, hence the book's title.

Letterpress printing with Nina Rodin on my residency at Trelex, near Geneva.

So how to manage all of these photos?

What I really need to do is have a massive cull, and get rid of the many duplicates and similar images. Even better would be to be much more ruthless in my initial uploads, deleting all but the best. Going forward this could work, but for now I need about a week of screen time to manage the task of culling and transferring a select few to the new computer.

'If I Only had more Time' - photo book concertina.

I know from experience that projects that don't get done soon after a trip or journey are unlikely ever to be realised. All of my videos from Alaska still lie waiting to be made into a major motion picture movie. Likewise my Latin American journey is more than worthy of a book, but I am now forgetting the details. It is becoming too late.

Making photo books is the best way to create tangible memories in my humble opinion.
They truly represent my view of the world.

So here's a plan;

spend a week culling in bite sized chunks.
spend another choosing which folders are worth keeping
spend another week listing all the unmade projects that are worth pursuing
Make sure that I have my photos backed up in three places; home, studio and cloud.
be brave; get the new Mac out of its box.
Transfer just the last three years of images onto the new Mac
Load up the new Mac with my image processing and publication software
START BEING RUTHLESS!

So let's make a start......