Originally written for the Pen and Paper Workshop held on June 10th, 2015:
Recently, I hit a milestone.
On my MacBook Pro laptop computer, as recorded by the iPhoto software that came bundled with it when I bought that computer and faithfully updated until about three to five years ago, there were over forty-one thousand image files.
There’s been some culling of a lot of images from that pile over the twelve years since I first acquired my original digital camera. Near as I can figure, I started using it in May of 2003. Nonetheless, that accumulation continues unstopped.
This is not a cause for complaint, although it has almost certainly contributed to providing motives for such causes. I’ll get to that in a little while, as it has something to do with today’s business news.
I’ve recorded a lot of images. A lot of this is my own family’s history. Other chunks record that of the fandoms devoted to various works of popular culture, urban history, architecture, civic infrastructure, local and national politics…it’s an eclectic mixture to be sure.
One regret I have about it is not making hardcopy reproductions of those images as often as I might have. Some of the time, that was due to money issues. I only have access to a certain amount of cash at any given time, and that could be laid at my feet too. In part, at least. But we can save the political and economic arguments for another time.
Another reason for my reluctance…well, time and energy to make the decision to do the work. Again, I can take some of the blame for that.
What leads me to calling this a regret, though, was one particular item in today’s news.
On August 8th of 2015, Black’s Photography will be no more. It will join the ever-growing list of Dead Canadian Brands, as announced by Telus, its parent company. Its employees, Telus spokespeople say to us, will be found jobs within the larger Telus organization wherever possible.
The people running Telus may have every intention of delivering on that promise and of doing so in such a way as to leave none of the former Black’s staffers regretting holding Telus to its corporate word of honour. I do not know yet, one way or another, how skeptical I should be of that given word.
Some argue that this is an inevitable consequence of technological progress. I suppose in some respects it is, and that I’ve contributed to that fallout as much as anyone who’s ever bought and made steady use of a digital camera. So there’s another part of my share of collective guilt.
There’s still the matter of close to five hundred people losing their jobs. There’s still the sense of having reached out for convenience and causing harm to others. I can’t quite get around those facts.
As if I weren’t enough of a packrat as it is…
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