Thinking & squinting

Following on from the last post, while uploading all these old photos to Flickr I've been wondering about the whole concept of images. Most of the people in these photos have been dead for decades, yet here in my computer their appearance (as it was captured on film, at least) lives on. Their pictures are recognisably "them" in a way that other things they might have left behind are not.

I wonder whether it would be okay to publish their photos publicly, rather than just archiving them, when really I should be asking whether they'd want them kept at all. And of course the answer is that it probably depends on the person and the photo. Who in their right mind would want to be immortalised like this, for example:

Devil Children
From left to right: me, cousin S, sister J
(Photo presumably taken in the aftermath of a combined hissy-fit, because up close you can see we've all got puffy eyes. And I swear I never ever looked like this, though I wouldn't mind having those legs now.)

I'm not sure how to be responsible with these old pictures or what "responsible" means in this context. And it bothers me that I have all this power over the use of other people's images, yet have steadfastly avoided ever posting my own.

So. Damn it. Look out.

It looks like I'm wearing a clown shoe on one of my feet, but sadly no, it's just a wayward sock. And yes, I can also see (now) that I'm sitting in quite a weird way, but it was getting chilly and my hands were cold :)