Look after the family snaps.

Treasure and preserve your personal photographs

Texts and photographs are ©John Walmsley, unless otherwise credited. All rights reserved.

My sons come and stay every now and then and it always reminds me how important family is. And, how important family photos are, or photos of you just going through your everyday life.

I collected the 'biscuit tins' from around the family, scanned all the old and dusty prints in them and then we all chipped in with names and places. Not just, 'Mum on holiday', but who's mum, her full name, where on holiday and who with? The full who, where, what and why, to answer the questions later generations will surely ask.

Here are just 10 photos from my journey through whatever this is, with my family. If you haven't done yours yet, I encourage you to get on with it. It's well worth it. Leave it too long and they’ll be gone in a fire, water leak, robbery, accident, house move or family bustup.

1. Me, very young in the garden of our council house.

2. With one of my steerable 'cars'. Looks like I used the same design principle as Alex Issigonis when he designed the original mini-car: put the wheels in the extreme corners to maximise the interior space.

If scanning is a step too far for you, maybe contact a local college and see if any students (of Design, Photography, Archives) could help. I think you should expect to pay them but it would get the job done. There’s another plus to this approach, too. Those students would get some invaluable experience working on a real project that means a lot to the ‘Client’.

If you’re one of the younger folk and all your photos are digital, avoid storing them only on your mobile phone for all the obvious reasons. Copy them somewhere safe, even if in the cloud.

Once you’ve finished writing all the details, give everyone a digital set so each member of the family has their own copies. Or, make a book of the images and texts together using one of the many readily available services. Modern printing is very high quality, much better than even 15 years ago and the page templates make it pretty straightforward.

3. Student protest days. On the phone drumming up support during the Guildford School of Art sit-in, 1968 (©Tony Terrot). Leica casually tossed on the table, as you do. A new book, by Claire Grey and I, on the sit-in and how it changed the way art schools are run in the UK, is available from my website here .

4. At the Liverpool Free School, a fascinating project I heard about and photographed in 1971. Regular school really does not suit all kids so two enterprising teachers in Liverpool gave them an alternative.

5. Garden Party at Buckingham Palace with Rosie. I was representing the Society of Authors.

6. Costume fitting for a fundraising charity event.

7. Avec Florence, ma prof' de Français, à mon exposition au musée de Guildford.

8. In Liverpool to give a talk to Fine Art students about the importance of protesting (©Scottie Press). To explain, John Lennon and Yoko Ono both supported our actions.

9. In the Christchurch College, Oxford, dining hall with son, Mike, a PhD student there. You may recognise it as the Hogwart’s dining room.

10. Sitting with Mike and Dave on a sunny day in Hyde Park when visiting the Serpentine Gallery.

Oh, as though my life just flashed before my eyes …..

Texts and photographs are ©John Walmsley, unless otherwise credited. All rights reserved.

John Walmsley’s Linktree.

John Walmsley is a member of the National Union of Journalists and the Society of Authors. His work, in one form or another, is at the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain Library, the National Art Library at the V&A, the V&A Museum of Childhood, Liverpool Museum, la Bibliothèque nationale de France and the University of California, San Diego, Library. 

With a wide range of other artists, he has recently taken part in group exhibitions in Sydney, NYC, Los Angeles, Arizona, Texas, Tbilisi, Sao Paolo, London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, France, Bangkok, Rome, Glasgow and Guildford.