On Wednesday evening, at 9:27 p.m., Burl Burlingame left a comment on my blog post that posed the question of what happens to our photographs when we’re gone. It was prompted by news that the photo site Flickr has established a category of “in memoriam” accounts that will continue to display photos indefinitely when the owner of the account has died.
Here’s his comment.
I wrote a story once for the paper about a Japanese-style house that was being dismantled, rather than being demolished, after the builder/owners died, because it was of architectural significance. While talking the the demo crew, I asked if they found anything interesting hidden away. “Oh, just a bunch of hundred-year-old photos of Japan taken as research. We threw them away.”
It was, it seems, his final comment.
Less than 48 hours later, Burl has joined those eligible for one of those “in memoriam” accounts. He collapsed and died this morning after a prolonged bout of the flu.
We’ll miss you, Burl.
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A powerful reminder to keep doing stuff while you are able to do so.
WOW…a prolonged flu ??? Bad strain of the flu??? Burl and I used to trade photo albums so he could scan them as historical documents. Most of the ones he wanted to scan were from WW II, many were from former Navy and Army vets. Some were captioned but most were not, which probably why they were discarded by the families. Burl was a good soul and as a community we suffer a real loss. I believe he was currently working at the Pacific Aviation Museum. I mourn his passing.
A long-time media contributor of note. (The flu is a nasty one this season.)
Hi Ian,
In 2009, I invited Burl and Mary, you and Meda, Kay and Art, and Cloudia to my home for lunch. This is a link to my post about bloggers whom I have met in person:
https://gigihawaii.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/matching-faces-with-blog-names/
glenda