The answer to this question is largely dependent upon what you do today. While a comprehensive look at memory preservation is beyond the scope of this page, we’d like to share some simple do’s and don’ts to make sure your family images last.

Never store your pictures, negatives, slides, important documents, movie film or video tape in the attic! Heat and humidity are the enemy of image stability.

The best place to store your photos and video is at the top of an indoor closet. Its usually dark, cool and dry up there.

Do digitize (usually this means scanning) photos and video so that copies can be shared and stored in more than one household. Anyone who went through the recent flooding in Queensland should understand this one.

Reproduce photos and videos that were originally recorded on unstable media such as video tape and early Agfa & Fujichrome slides and movies.

If you really want to dig in to the nitty gritty of image permanence, a great resource is the Wilhelm Research website as well as the National Library of Australia website.

Of course, Fotofast offers a wide variety of memory preservation services flexible enough to accommodate any project.