Save photo archives: 10 years back from archiving experience

In 2014, we chose to digitize 100,000 old photos. Saving your archive photos saves an invaluable heritage. We have chosen to make a comeback experience to make you enjoy our tips and tricks, and make you avoid mistakes when you start scanning its archives with a scanner in particular!

This article is the report of the conference « Save our archives » presented at the International Photo Fair in Bièvres on June 6, 2026.

Who is the Passadoc association?

Since 2015, Passadoc has raised public awareness about theimportance of saving your photos from archive.

At the time of artificial intelligence (IA), our personal (or professional) archives have become even more valuable. This conference is aimed at the general public (good practices for digitisation etc.) and professionals (returns from 10 years of project of backup of the Abbe Photo Fund of 100,000 photos).

Who is François Abbe the author of this article?

François Abbe is engaged in the preservation and enhancement of audiovisual archives. His project is ambitious: digitize and preserve the fonds of his father André Abbe, a unique set of 100,000 heritage photos retracing decades of history through the gaze of a journalist and photographer.

In 2015, François co-founded the association Passadoc, to raise awareness the public to the crucial importance of saving archive photos.

Since 2000, François has been collaborating inimportant digitisation projects (Abu Dhabi Media, BBC, Canal+, France TV...). It offers concrete feedback to help everyone — amateurs as professionals — to adopting good practices to preserve its photo, video, text archives...

Why save his photo archives?

Chronophage
Cost
Only return on investment: wealth, brand image... And pleasure!

Our 10 years of archives backup

2015: Charlie Hebdo = trigger; talk about good memories rather than deplorable news
2015: First digitisations on Facebook (then Insta) and first publications Passadoc
2016 : Creation of the Passadoc association
2018: Health problems begin
2021: goal = save everything and finish digitizing the archives of André Abbe for 2030
2023 : 87,000 photos left to scan
June 2026: see end

Scan: use a flat scanner

Constraint
- Backlighting: necessary for film
- Cleaning: mechanical or electronic
Time: our Epson Perfection V750 Pro flat scanner takes 1 minute per photo, 12 minutes at every full scan, it's way too much
Low value added: global agile which does not bring added value to the customer does not have value

→ Delegating or subcontracting its scanning

- Forever

Scan: take a photo from the archive

Minimum: with a smartphone – example: paper photos, books, etc.

Francine Remy and women in front of a Koranic school (medersa) in Khargird, Khorassan region (near the Afghan border), Iran, 1970 – Photo André Abbe (after print). André started his career by photographing monuments that entered UNESCO's restoration projects. This activity ended with the Old City of Havana in 1987. The latest silver photos of André Abbe were taken in 2006. André used a camera from East Germany "Praktica". André has often been robbed of his cameras while travelling. So he preferred Pentax which was cheaper than Canon or Nikon.

Maximum: with a photo bench – example: Digital Transition Photo Phase One camera at ADMN

Enrich: adding precious metadata

2 sources of information:

1st source of information: What exists with each photo and/or photo box:

- - The text (on the back of a printed photo, on the cover of a slide...) : possible to interpret with an AI ?

What exists with each photo and/or photo box:

- - The date (the punch on slides): requires a human eye

Source 2: The photo itself

- - A human enriches from his memories

Example: « Cannes Festival: 150 years of memories »

A machine will search for information (e.g. Google Lens)

2 places to store this information:

1st place to store information:

In the JPEG photo: IPTC metadata fields (www.iptc.org)

2nd place to store information:

On a Photo Storage Platform in the Cloud

Save and sustain photos

How to store your photos to keep them long:

Golden Rule: 1 files, 2 types of backup media, 3 copies

Example:

- - 1 copy on the Cloud of an online photo service
  - 2 external hard drives (synchronized) = prefer a NAS server

For physical support (hard disk, SSD memory cards): plan to change support every n month or year to ensure its sustainability.

Reversibility : think about recovering data stored in the Cloud

- Choose your online storage: it should allow synchronization with physical storage and thus allow recovery of data easily

How to print your photos to keep them long:

Archive your photos with Fine Art print with a high-end ink.

Produce books to save photos :

Since industrial printing via online sales sites
...up to art printing

Producing calendars to save its best photos every year.

Producing greeting cards

In both cases, it is a annual permanent appointment who gives the motivation to save his photo archives!

Enjoy with his photo archive

Create a photo exhibition in your home or business:

Print on paper ideal for archiving then display photos

The opening is often the organ of the photo exhibition...

Offer your archive photos:

The photos are from beautiful gifts for family, relatives, friends, clients, collaborators, prescribers...

Make your archive photos known on social networks:

There was one before: three publications a day (one quiz in the morning, the answer in the evening) on Passadoc or one video a day

There was one after:

Wild Meta account closure (Facebook, Instagram) → drop
Thank you, because at least we're not going to feed AI underground.
Today, daily publication on Facebook Passadoc and video hebdo publication on Provence Heritage
No more than one social network (or one company) that we love, today 2 minimum (2 shareholders, 2 continents)

Conclusion: ensuring a minimum presence on social networks (we are not prostitutes serving multinationals)