Should film photographers keep their negatives?

Since returning to film photography in 2006, I’ve shot hundreds of rolls of film and made many thousands of images. I’ve carefully preserved each negative strip. I have boxes and boxes full, taking up valuable space in my office closet. And yet, I’ve needed to retrieve a past negative about five times in all those years. I often wonder, what am I keeping all these negatives for? For most of photography’s history, the negative was the photograph. Every print originated from it. Every future use depended on it. Preserving negatives was crucial because the negative was the master object. Today, with rare exceptions, film photography is a hobbyist pursuit. Most hobbyists digitize their negatives to create a digital file. Then they edit the digital file, catalog the digital file, back up the digital file, publish the digital file online, and print from the digital file. The original digital file has become the working master. Not because it is superior to the negative, but because it is…