Legacy Value vs. Conversational Value For Your Photos

     Around 2003, a major insurance company, Allianz, commissioned "The American Legacy Study".   They wanted to know about the attitudes of the Baby Boom generation and the World War II generation regarding the transition of wealth from one generation to the next.   The shocker of this study was that money was NOT the primary concern or source of conflict within a family when a parent or grandparent dies.  It was the items of emotional value that were most likely to be of concern:  the photo album, the dining room table, the rocking chair.
  When a photograph has "legacy value", it has meaning that is passed from one generation to another.

     This picture adorns the cover of a coffee table book I made about my mother.  In the photo above she is in all her glory at a church coffee hour.  She was a ministers wife and she loved to cook and she was a marvelous cake decorator, as you can see.  She routinely had 8 or more guests for Sunday dinner or various family celebrations.  She loved color and arranging flowers. She made her own figure-flattering classic dresses.  She was a "Martha Stewart" before her time!  This photo captures all the things she loved to do--even if all I wrote was, "My mom was a Martha Stewart before her time!"

     This photo has more of what I would call "Conversational" value. It is simply a brief moment in life that is shared in my conversation with others.  I took it with my cellphone.  I posted it on Facebook. By itself, it is just a pretty picture of what I was doing one Saturday morning.

     I could also  add legacy value to it by writing about it "The beauty of a spiritual  retreat is that you are plucked out of daily life and all its distractions.  You are free to be in the present moment. I got up early and went for a walk in the woods.  The air was crisp.  The colors were glorious!  When I experience this beauty, I know that I am never alone."

Some photos are so packed with meaning, that it doesn't take much to add the legacy value of the written word to them.  Some photos are simply a part of the transient fabric of life.  They are part of our conversation but do not have legacy value until we write about them.  So when you are sorting through your photos and deciding which ones are the "Keepers"  or "The Best of the Best", look for the legacy value.  Is the photo just a passing moment,  or does it touch a responsive chord in your heart?  Is it worth writing a few sentences about?