Backup, backup, backup!

A couple of months ago one of my oldest external hard drives took a turn for the worse. Clicking and whirring it was pretty clear it didn’t have much go left in it. Some friends recommended putting it in the freezer a couple of times which helped me to retrieve a small portion of photos, but all else seemed lost. Of course I hadn’t backed up. I seem to be filling up hard drives quicker than I can afford them. I admit that I am a complete and utter photo hoarder. Ironically I am completely obsessed with deleting every other kind of file on my computer in my never ending quest for “organisation”, but when it comes to photos (good, bad or entirely useless) I just can’t bring myself to delete any. With the drive dying it meant that I had lost hundreds of thousands of photos dating from 2001-2007, as well as 100gb+ of music. I was pretty devastated. People kept telling me it could all be fixed but that it’d cost me big bucks. I was beginning to lose hope and silently resigned myself to the fact that I was an idiot and should have backed up. Some of those photos were my favourite photos I’d ever taken.

I was sifting around under my desk this afternoon when I came across a bag stashed away. Lo and behold, a chunky bag filled with literally hundreds of CDs and DVDs dating back to 2001! So I have been sitting here at this computer for almost twelve hours now transferring an incredible amount of data over to one of the drives. I had forgotten how clunky, slow and easily damaged CDs/DVDs get. Quite a few of them have been corrupted but I’ve managed to retrieve the majority of the data using software. Hallelujah!

It’s been an odd journey. Much like when I look back through this blog (which I do from time to time to remind me of things), it’s been incredibly nostalgic. Something that has become increasingly noticeable to me lately is the division between photographers, artists, people that practice both and where I stand. Sifting through these images has given me (or reminded me) of why I became interested in photography and why I pursued it. I started photographing as an alternative to the written word. I had no idea that it would totally transform my perception of the world and that I would become so obsessed with documenting and creating images. It’s interesting to see how my attitude to photography has evolved from a diaristic, almost therapeutic approach – which was very much present during my degree and has been continuously evident in my relationships – to a commercial approach. In short, it’s even more interesting to see my photographic style progress, shift, but recognise that my style is still evident in a great deal of my images.

Photography for me is still very much so a therapy of sorts. I am terribly paranoid about the lack of memory. Although I am not as bad as I used to be, I obsess about the possibility of not remembering a place, a person, a moment. For me, this is how photography came about. Seeing these images, to me, are just fascinating. There have only been a few instances where I haven’t recognised, or remembered, taking a photo. Surrounded by my pile of CDs, which will soon no doubt transform into yet more hard drives, I like to think that this great archive will one day be a hundred times bigger than it already is…

So just remember.. backup. Please.