Images Remain
In the heart of Britain, a remarkable collection of family photograph albums resides, carefully curated and cherished by author and journalist, Jonathan Self. Known for his work on social issues and biographies, Self has graced the pages of esteemed publications like The Sunday Times, The Guardian, and The Telegraph.
The collection, spanning hundreds of albums, is a testament to the past, filled with formal portraits of mid-19th-century European royalty, as well as more personal snaps of his own family. These albums, each a small monument to their subjects and creators, are all that remains of many lives, events, and places of significant importance.
Among the drifts of albums that block the door and piles precariously balanced on the club fender, Self finds a source of fascination, amusement, puzzlement, and sadness. Many of the albums hold significant information about the lives, relationships, and interests of the family members depicted.
Self's nanny pasted photographs of her four-legged charges into old-fashioned scrapbooks, while his father, a prolific photographer, accounted for at least 10 albums. His great-great-grandmother's cartes de visite collection is arranged in leatherbound volumes, each a glimpse into the past.
Despite the vastness of his collection, Self is not working at putting these photographs into any sort of order; he is simply enjoying them. He recalls his mother, who rarely took out her camera, but always added captions to her photographs, making each memory more vivid.
Some of the albums were bequeathed to Self, while others he rescued from the dustbin. The collection is a reminder of the importance of preserving our past, and the stories that our photographs tell.
As Self revisits these albums, he is reminded of family visits and parties in his childhood and youth. Each photograph, a window into a moment frozen in time, a memory waiting to be rediscovered. His task, to put five generations of family photographs into some sort of order, is a labour of love, a testament to the power of family, history, and the photographs that bind them together.
