The Roman god, Janus, with a face looking backward and another looking forward, comes naturally to mind this month. I find I do the same as he, at this time of year. I look back through a year’s worth of photos for something to send out in the holiday cards and then I look forward at how to preserve a year of photos for the future.

There are several methods of photo preservation, depending on the type of photographic images. For those printed on paper (thus excluding very old forms of photography) I label them gently on the back with the date and context, using a very soft 6B pencil (as opposed to the standard 2HB school pencil). The ink of a ballpoint pen would leach through the paper over time, while a harder pencil would emboss the paper. Then I place the photos in an archival environment: either filed in PVC-free plastic photo boxes or placed in PVC-free segmented photo sleeves secured in a binder. Once the physical images are preserved from decay, then I look at how to ensure the images are safe from fire or other hazards. The key here is some form of back up.

For example, I try to have a physical and digital copy of each image. For heirloom photographs I scan them into my computer first (at a resolution of at least 600 dpi) and if I am doing research with them, I then print a simple black and white copy to use. The originals are placed in the safety deposit box. If I have the actual negatives of important images, such as those of my wedding, the negatives reside in the safety deposit box and the photos are displayed. I suppose I could also scan these photos or negatives, but I haven’t gotten around to it. For images which exist only as slides, I have converted those into digital files; I borrowed a machine from a friend to do this, but there are also companies that will do this for you.

For the digital images we have been accumulating for the last 12 years or so, I print some for display and archive the digital images. Digital images should exist in at least two places, for example, your computer and an external hard drive kept at another location, such as a relative’s house or another residence. Remember to keep your backup drive up-to-date. Some people choose to back up images to a DVD or CD. Unfortunately, these disks do not have a guaranteed lifespan of any length; estimates of lifetime range from 5 years to 100 years depending on who you ask. Digital files also need to be kept technologically up to date; as new file formats replace the ones we use today (jpg, tiff, raw), the images must be converted to the new formats to be useful in the future.

Displaying images is another aspect that should be given some thought. I was so disappointed to visit my aunt’s house and see a precious original photo from 1915 hanging on her wall, illuminated by a sunbeam. This will fade and destroy the photograph over time. Alternatives would be to hang the photo in a less exposed place, or better yet, to display a modern copy of the original.

I have chosen to display some photos in albums; I mount the photos on acid-free and lignin-free paper and slide that into a page-protector, as mentioned above. Lignin is a component of wood fiber and it degrades over time; this is why newspapers turn a crispy brown after a while. If, like my mom, you have photos in old ‘magnetic’ albums, which really adhere photos with lines of glue, rescue them ASAP. Gently remove them before the glue and plastic cover ruin them. This was a wonderful project for Mom and I last year. It gave us an excuse to look at every image and talk about the events recorded. We had difficulty removing some photos, resorting to dental floss to lift the photos off the glue. On the back of each photo, we also named each person in the image; I find it so sad to see a picture of a person and not even know their name. It’s like they have been lost in time.

When I began archiving my family’s photographic history, more than a decade ago, supplies were difficult to come by. Now archival quality supplies are easy to find through scrapbooking stores, photo-developers and office supply stores.

As a new year begins, take a tip from Janus, god of beginnings, endings, and time. Resolve to begin preserving your family photos for a future time. It can be a big job, but it can also be a fun way to reminisce with loved ones, reliving the happy events recorded in family photos.

This article was originally printed in the Bergen News and is being reprinted with permission.