Many of my old gelatin silver prints have been relinquished to the trash heap of time. There were not that many different compositions, but there were multiple prints of many images. Once I discovered the proper exposure, burning, dodging and developing for a negative I usually made at least three copies of the final print because there was always the (high) probability that I would damage a print in the process of retouching (aka spotting) or when dry mounting a print to a mat board.
These prints I slaved over many years ago have been sealed in an archival Glad Garbage bag waiting to be dumped in the landfill. I also disposed of many digital negatives I used when I was platinum printing. That made me sad. They were really nice looking negatives.
My version of the Potlatch was actually liberating. These possessions were an anchor.
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