A Northumberland camera club is working to ensure its pictures are preserved for future generations. 
 

Thanks to funding from the Audience Agency, Northumberland Archives and Cramlington Camera Club have been working together to make sure that the digital photographs that the Club members have taken will still be able to be enjoyed for many years to come. 

 
Digital technology has changed the landscape of photography in many ways. For some, photographs are no longer precious items that are passed between generations but disposable content that can lie inaccessible on drives and old phones, potentially lost forever.  
 

This can have huge implications for the future of photographic collections which document the life and times of the county. 
 

Jo March, Senior Archivist at Northumberland Archives, explained: “Preserving digital files is tricky. Anyone who was using computers in the 1980s and 1990s will remember floppy discs, but, of course, technology moves on and who has a floppy drive these days?  
 

“Even CD-Roms, which were used a lot in the 2000s, are becoming rarer. They were only ever designed to last for 10-20 years so the information that was saved on them is starting to degrade.  
 

“At Northumberland Archives, we've invested in a digital preservation system  and have done a lot of work during lockdown to "ingest" or upload digital files - over 300,000 so far.  
 

“This means that we can preserve digital archives, like the one created by Cramlington Camera Club, for future generations. Paper and parchment last for a really long time in the right conditions, digital files need a little more help." 

 
Chris Houghton, President of the Camera Club, said: “We’re delighted to partner with Northumberland County Council for the county Digital Archive project.  
 

“The camera club is 50 years old and still going strong today with 30 + members taking pictures all over the county and we jumped at the chance to preserve some of our images in the digital archive for future generations to see years from now.  
 

“Being part of the archive project preserves our images and opens the club up to a wider audience and we hope attract new members.” 
 

 The club was founded in 1971 meeting weekly during the season with guest speakers, practical nights, sharing technical knowledge and tutorials including field day trips for members to learn and hone their photography skills.  
 

For more information please contact the club direct at www.cramcams.org.uk/contact.html  
 

For more information on Northumberland Archives go to https://www.northumberlandarchives.com/