This feels like quite a new term but an analogue photo album is just a traditional, old school photo album. It's the type of photo album that your parents had; one where you put physical photos onto a page of photoboard rather than drag virtual images into a grid on your screen to then be digitally printed out.
I've googled the term 'analogue' to see what it means and I'm not sure I'm any the wiser, so instead I've searched for the etymology of the word and again, it's so hard to grasp! The 'ana' part comes from the Greek for "up to" and then the 'logo' part means "ratio" and "proportion". So, there we are.
Anyway, here are the key points that help define an analogue photo album - and the key differentiators between the former and it's digital counterpart.
- With an analogue album you actually have the physical photos which you then need to secure onto the pages - either stick with glue, mounting squares etc. or slip into little plastic pockets etc.
- You then have the freedom to also adorn the pages with writing ( who's in the photos, what happened next) with mementos ( tickets, wristbands, flyers) with stickers, dried flowers, coloured pens... This then turns into the whole world of scrapbooking which is MASSIVE in the USA but hasn't caught on here in the UK yet.
- You're responsible with an analogue album for actually looking after the photos. This can actually make them feel even more precious and valuable ( which is why people often cite photo albums as one of the few things they'd take with them if they're house was burning down!).
- Analogue photo albums are really tactile. You can feel the photos and their relief from the page, you can sense their smoothness versus the very slight grainy feel of the photoboard, you can run your fingers over the dent the pen has made when writing comments. And then the best bit of all for me is that traditional analogue photo albums like the ones we sell at BeGolden, come with glassine interleaves which make the most magical sound as they're turned over.
And then lastly, there is something mindful about making an analogue photo album. You have the real photos in your hands, you have craft materials (glue dots, mounting squares, pens), you have the creativity to make the album up however you feel.
I think that digital albums are quicker to make and they do give you more flexibility with changing the sizes of the images etc. but there is something quite special about the feel of an analogue album. I think it's the fact that you can feel the responsibility of all the photos inside!