Andy Grundberg , Camera, Published March 24, 1991

In Andy Grunberg’s article, Camera, he explains how filing photos has become a common problem for most photographers due to how much time it takes to organize them. Grundberg found batches of family photos and slides of old family vacations, however, if he wanted to find a certain photo, he would have to search through the batches of photographs until he found what he was looking for. This process would take too much time if the photos were not organized in some way. In order to solve this problem, Grundberg talks about how most photographers used McBee filing cards. However, this process also consumed a lot of the photographers’ time. Grundberg then reviews a certain computer program, Superset that is supposed to save time by inserting photographs into the computer and organizing them into certain categories of choice. Grundberg proposes that the computer program isn’t the most efficient and quick way to organize photos because of the numerous options and menu tools. This would actually create more work for the photographer because there are more options to choose from and sub categories to organize the photos in. Grundberg concludes his article by stating that only the most patient and persnickety photographers would want to use the computer program because of its multiple menu options. Overall, Grundberg says the computer may do the job of organizing photos, but it does not do it instantaneously and he would rather stick to organizing photos in a shoe-box.

In my opinion, I agree with Grundberg. Although the computer program may have a great way to organize photos, it may actually make it more complicated and tedious for the photographer. I feel as though the simpler the organization, the easier it is to find the photos and quicker it is to organize them. Otherwise, photographers are going to run into the same problem of not wanting to organize their photos at all because it takes too long or it is too complicated. I think that if I were to use the computer program, I would not sub categorize my photos because I would personally forget which category I put that photo in. I think this especially applies to photographers who take 100 photos a day. It would be one thing if there were only one category to place each set of photographs, but to have sub-categories within the major category can make it more confusing. Overall, I enjoyed reading Grundberg’s article about organizing photos and found it interesting that people would rather stay away from the new technology for once and keep it simple by storing them in things, such as shoe-boxes.