Also published on Medium on 12 October, 2021
According to Dictionary.com the definition of Curate is:
“to select, organize, and present (online content, merchandise, information, etc.), typically using professional or expert knowledge.”
I picked the name “The Memory Curator” for a reason when I started this business. I wanted to help people who loved memory keeping to be able to easily bring themselves to their memory keeping process.
I have always believed that preserving our memories is not just a task-oriented project but a project that should involve our hearts and souls. Organising is important but the great mission is to communicate to the people in our lives (and even those we don’t yet know) what our life has meant to us – what the people we love have meant to us – through family photos and videos.
The term “oral history” is pretty common. Talking about a visual history or a visual legacy is less so. But equally important. Especially if you find it easier to communicate in images than words.
So let’s make it common. Let’s dive deep. And the first step is to get clear on the fact that in order to create a meaningful visual history with your family photos, you need to step up and curate.
To help, here are three reasons why it’s important to shift your mindset to being a photo curator.
You are the expert on your life and your experience as a member of your family.
That expert knowledge is your view of your role in your family’s history. You possess your truth, and as the caretaker of these precious memories, it is your job to present them in the best way you can to tell your story and that of your family. You get to set the framework and decide what exactly the story of your family is…. Adventure? Connection? Achievement? Love? Probably more than just one. And once you decide the framework for your story, it becomes SO MUCH EASIER and more interesting to pick the photos to use to tell it.
The people you love and that love you want to know more about what you care about and how you have experienced life.
It is a big job to maintain a family photo and video collection. Getting it into chronological order is a monumental achievement. But I would argue that your family mostly wants to know how you feel about them and how you felt about the time you spent with them. They also want to know about your time without them. This is where curating comes into play. The photos you choose to keep and present will communicate YOUR story. Not just a chronological history of events.
Curating YOUR story as a participant in your family’s history is how we stay immortal.
You have a story to tell. A story that will live beyond us and be passed down to our kids and grandkids. Stories that make us immortal. Pairing down and choosing the images you keep and present in a visual history makes sure that your story gets told for years to come. When you curate your photos and videos you control the narrative. You control your own legacy.
It’s a lot to think about isn’t it?
If you want to learn more, be sure to sign up for the waitlist for my new class: Creating a Family Visual History: How to Create a Visual History Your Kids Will Want to Keep. I can’t wait to delve into this one in a few weeks!
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP TO THE WAITLIST
DOWNLOAD THE FIRST LESSON OF THE MEMORY CURATOR WORKSHOP FOR FREE
