Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Do Digital Photos Endanger History?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the what's-the-problem-here dept.

Ant writes "Experienced photographer Jayne West wrote her degree dissertation on the historical impact of digital capture. She argues that the use of digital photography in news reporting means we could lose a valuable pictorial record of history." Much of her argument seems weak to me (precisely because digital photography allows the instant culling West talks about). The digital storage itself, though, perhaps ought to make us nervous.

3 of 479 comments (clear)

  1. Not Really... by Greyfox · · Score: 3, Redundant
    If you compare it to traditional photography, not really; there are newspapers with archives of photos which are rotting right now because no one maintains them. Even if they do make an effort to preserve them, the storage space requirements for traditional photos get pretty hefty after a while, too.

    Cave painting, on the other hand, lasts at least tens of thousands of years, so if you REALLY want to preserve your history, I suggest you find a cave and paint in it with some yaks blood. Maybe you can modify slashcode for a cave edition (First posts stored for 10,000 years. Yeah...)

    --

    I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  2. Re:Flawed arguments by dweezle · · Score: 4, Redundant

    Yes, but if you run out of storage you can cull useless images to free up memory. No wasted shots.
    All that's really is a standard for permanent storage.

    --
    In a time of universal lies, Telling the Truth is a revolutionary act - George Orwell
  3. The real danger by Wolfier · · Score: 4, Redundant

    Is the digital storage itself, maybe?

    What I've observed is, digital technologies tend to become obsolete and forgotten.

    At least, pictures stored on film or microfilm can be directly seen by the eyes. Digitally stored, we have to decrypt, decompress, change into analog form...etc before the information can be truely "read".

    We are able to study scripts written as far as 4000 years ago. Any sane mind here thinks our digital stuffs can last even one tenth as long?