Photo storage for printed pictures?

I wanted to ask about your method of photo storage and what you like and don't like about it. I'm not talking of my arty pictures which I might finally get around to hanging on the wall after my next move, I'm talking of pictures "documenting" the past.

I have to confess that even though everyone more and more often just goes digital, looking at pictures on a screen doesn't do much for me. I prefer slowly thumbing through a book of pictures, having an object I can hold in my hands. I had a box full of single photos for some time, but most of my pictures were only on my harddrive. This means basically everything I took with my own camera since I got it as a teenager, plus all kinds of pictures that I got from different people or took with my parents camera that my parents haven't archived because they were my personal pictures. All childhood pictures are at my parents, because that was before digital. Although I do have one album full of childhood pics of myself and important people (like a best of) which my mum made me as a present for my 18th birthday. I'm still adding two to three pics to it every year and I'm guessing I'm going to run out of space by the time I'm in my mid thirties.

So I started sorting through all the pictures on the hardrive a while ago when I finally decided to tackle that project. I like to take pictures, so you can image the amount of files I have. The Scotland trip last year alone resulted in around 1500 pictures. I tried to be pretty ruthless about my picks - for example I only took the very best landscape/architecture/whatever pictures and concentrated on pictures with friends and family instead. I have pictures from family celebrations with people on it who aren't with us any longer, pics from school trips and so on. I managed to end up with just under 2000 pictures when I was finished and this is everything. That meant for example around 30-40 pics per holiday, some older ones with maybe just 20 and newer ones with 60-70. I have to confess I was much more emotional about the pictures of the last two or three years than about the ones that were five years and older. But maybe that's also because my photography skills are better now.

I was thinking of buying these photo albums where you can just slide the pictures in, ideally matching ones to make it look nice. I wanted to put them in chronological order, that way I could add to it easily along the line. I found different albums online and I'm wondering If I should buy big ones that can take 300 pics, which makes them tall albums with three pics on each page or if I should go with smaller ones with two pics on each side that can take 200 pics. The big ones are going to be heavy and might be not as comfortable to use, but I'd need more of the smaller ones obviously which would be more expensive because the price difference often isn't that big. Any recommendations on that? And, would you buy everything in one color or would you go for different colors when they have them available? One color might look nicer in open shelving, but if I don't buy black then the chance that they'd discontinue a color would be fairly big I think. If I take different colors to begin with I won't have that probelm. Any other storage ideas I haven't thought of? Any brand recommendations? I don't have a ton of money to spend, but I want to buy decent quality.

And if you made it to the end of this, thanks!

10 years ago

Alassë

Veteran

Astrid, I tackled this project a few years ago. I felt that the experience of flipping through the photo album was more important than the price tag - large albums just don't feel the same. (I did buy a couple large ones - that's how I found out I don't like that style. I did use them since I'd spent the money, but I prefer 1-picture-per-page).

I didn't go for matching albums. For me, I wanted to be able to tell at a glance which album was which year, and I liked the variety of having an assortment of pretty albums. It took a while to find enough small ones that looked attractive to me, but I was happy with the result. (Matching styles in different colours were fine; I just didn't want a row of identical albums.)

Anonymous

To tell you the truth I got rid of all my albums, because they just took up so much space. I placed all my photos in acid free photo boxes in chronological order with inserts that details what the series of photos are about. I also uploaded all these photos into Shutterfly (ones I took before digital photography, I scanned and then uploaded). Once in Shutterfly, I get prints and then make books out of them detailing everything to make it more enjoyable to pick up and look through.

I have made over 30 Shutterfly books and they take up so much less space than albums.

Astrid

Thanks Alasse! Yes, I suspect the big ones might be a bit much. I guess you have a lot of visual clutter looking at it open, with six different pictures. With smaller albums it's easier to concentrate on the single picture. I guess I agree with you when it comes to style - all the same might be a bit boring. But I want them to match at least to a degree. I'm going to think about it a bit. I also like the idea of one picture per page, but that would mean a lot of albums. I haven't seen any so far that do one picture per page and are still able to fit a decent amount in them. And I don't want to divide them up into piles of 25 or 30 pics for the prevailing small albums. How many pictures fit in yours?

Thanks Lara! I don't mind the space the albums would take up, there won't be that many. Not even a whole shelf in my bookcase, ten of the standard albums with space for 200pics would be about two thirds of one shelf. That's not all that much, I can easily make room for that without getting rid of anything else. I've been paring down all of my possessions for a while and my 350 square feet apartment isn't all that stuffed anylonger. And these would be important enough to give up some of that space! It would be something completely different if I would have wanted all decent photos I have on paper, then I'd drown in albums for sure.

Here it's not hard to find 100-photo albums. And congratulations on the apartment declutter! I've been doing some of that over here.

Thanks! I plan to do a lot more before the next move which I think might be sometime next year - I want to pack and transport only things that I truly want to keep. I had another look and I found those one pic per side albums that fit 100 each and I think that might be a good size, truly. And I like that they basically just fit the picture and there isn't all that cheap lined paper I'm usually not writing anything on anyway. I think I'm going to note down some things on the back of the pictures instead and might just add stickers for the dates? But I need to find ones that look fun and a bit more classy. Most of the styles I've seen have tacky pictures on them, definitely not what I want.

ETA After looking some more I decided to buy three boxes for the pictures instead. I found some really lovely ones dedicated for pictures which are also made in Germany and aren't very expensive. That way I will have everything sorted and can wait until I find the albums I want in the quality I want. Maybe I can also still reduce the amount a bit over time. So the album thing gets a bit postponed, but thanks all the same! I think I have a better idea what I want now.

Exactly. I don't want to write notes, and prefer classy covers since I'm not a kid anymore.

rebekahphoto

HI Astrid,
I wanted to share a few links you might find interesting. Hollinger Metal Edge is the leading source for archival materials of all kinds: boxes, albums, etc.

http://www.hollingermetaledge.com

Print File is a company that has many available options for photos storage, here is a link to standard size Album pages that you can mix/match:
http://www.hollingermetaledge......4651337426...

These are some options for standard size albums, different fabrics, linens, some are boxes etc:

http://www.hollingermetaledge......7426184657

Thank you very much! I didn't think of looking at archival materials.

It may not be the best way to do it, but I have plastic Rubbermaid boxes full of photos on high shelves in my walk-in closet. I also have some in photo albums, also on high shelves. We have tons of pictures, and it's difficult to store them all.

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