Photograph It Before It’s Gone

Recently, I was asked to photograph a local building before it closed and document it from a historical standpoint. I quoted $500 for the work and never heard anything back. I do not know if the price was outside the budget, plans changed, or they simply decided not to move forward. That happens.

But it did get me thinking about the value we place on photographs once something is disappearing.

We drive past the same buildings for years without giving them much thought. Some of them are beautiful. Some are falling apart. Some are places most people would never think about photographing. Then a business closes, a building gets demolished, or an area gets redeveloped, and suddenly everyone starts talking about what used to be there.

That is when photographs become more than photographs.

A picture of an old storefront might not seem particularly important today. Twenty years from now, it could be one of the only records of what that corner of town looked like.

There is also work involved in creating those records. Historical photography is not simply showing up and pressing the shutter a few times. It takes time to photograph a property thoroughly, pay attention to the details, edit the images, organize them, and create something that can actually be useful later.

I think community history is worth preserving. I also think the work required to preserve it has value.

Lately, I have found myself photographing more old businesses, signs, buildings, cars, and other things around Clarksville that could easily disappear or are in various states of “decomp.” I have no idea which of those photographs will matter years from now.

That is probably part of the reason to make them.