One of Quebec's leading photojournalists has all is archives stolen

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Sorry for the main article being in french, but its a saddening, angering and somewhat stunning story. After hearing about stolen camera gear from the games, this story puts things in perspective. Gear is expensive, but can be replaced. On the other end, your work can't be replaced...

Jacques Nadeau, one of Quebec's leading photojournalists, has just had all is archives (and TV) stolen from is Montreal's appartment. The camera gear and other valuables were left alone. For example, his 300mm prime was sitting on the table and left there, but the burglars stole all his printed archives and all is hard drives. Incredibly, Nadeau did not have off-location backups except for his later news work, which is archived at Le Devoir, where he is a staff photographer. These archives are not full resolution however. He is also appalled that he has lost all of his work for his next photo book project. All he has left is a few USB sticks...

Nadeau was known for taking some of the most poignant portraits of Quebec's and Canada's politicians for the last 35 years or so. Now, his life's work has vanished. I'm floored (and I'm going to back up my drives, I swear...).

Full story in french
http://www.ledevoir.com/societe/actualites-en-societe/445148/vol-chez-jacques-nadeau

short story in english
http://montreal.ctvnews.ca/montreal-photographer-jacques-nadeau-s-life-s-work-stolen-1.2470355
http://petapixel.com/2015/07/15/photojournalist-loses-lifes-work-after-burglars-steal-hard-drives/

 

[Don Haines]

Having one's backup in the same room/building is like having no backup at all.....

The thieves come, they take the computer, and they take the backup drive sitting beside it......

The building catches fire, the computer burns, and the backup beside it burns....

and if you have no backup, remember it not a case of "if" your hard drive will fail, but "when" your hard drive will fail.

Any professional should have an offsite backup as part of their operating plan. Let this be a lesson to those who do not!

 

[Maximilian]

Pitty over the thieves!

But...

... Nadeau did not have off-location backups except for his later news work...

that's the truth

... Any professional should have an offsite backup as part of their operating plan. Let this be a lesson to those who do not!

And that is not only about professionals but everybody that don't want to lose data.

You know the saying:
"The admin is only as good as his latest backup!"

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

Its hard for me to blame the photographer for someone taking his equipment and Archives. Obviously, off site backups would be wise, but there is never a 100% guarantee.

I'd blame the scum who broke in and took the stuff. The fact that there were no backups is secondary.

 

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I fully understand the requirement for backup, but I feel like I can see a photojournalist being under enough pressure for work to postpone the off-location backup to a further date until there is just so much to backup that he gets overburdened by the task and just goes along. To his defense, he had local backups hidden at his place, but they were also taken.

I think we need to realize we are talking about a 35 year career as a photojournalist. That means film and then to film and digital combo and to fully digital process. The pity being that he had managed to have all his film work digitized and had discarded the originals...

Honestly, I've often seen big names in having part or full-time staff managing their life-time work, but I don't see a photojournalist from Quebec, even the very best ones, having the resource for an archive curator.

What puzzles me is that the archives were targeted and many valuables were left untouched. I have a hard time seeing a market for such archives and I would have to think it was more meant to be an aggression than an attempt to monetize the loot.

 

[LDS]

Its hard for me to blame the photographer for someone taking his equipment and Archives. Obviously, off site backups would be wise, but there is never a 100% guarantee.

It is true up to a point - digital archives are far too easy to lose (because of a failure) or be stolen, while are far easier to make copies of. Moreover while once drawers and boxes of prints, slides or negatives would have not attracted but targeted actions, today electronics looks like that used for everything else, and can be easily resold.

I also wonder they weren't kept in a safe or the like at least - after all they are your true valuable assets. Sure, it could not have deterred a skilled burglar (nor saved them from a catastrophic fire), but if those were after some easy to sell electronics only it could have - and it could survive other disasters (it is true it could attract some burglars also, thinking it contains money, jewels or the like).

I understand many photographers think about themselves as "artists" so they don't like to care much about the "tech/business" side, but I believe it's a real mistake - when your life depends on some assets, you need anyway to learn how to protect them. Otherwise, unluckily, you learn it the really hard way, one bad day.

 

[AcutancePhotography]

Putting my tin-foil hat, it is interesting that the criminals took the hard drives (if I read the story correctly). So they were not after high value easy to sell loot. What picture on those hard drives did the criminals want (cue dramatic music)?

 

[martti]

Putting my tin-foil hat, it is interesting that the criminals took the hard drives (if I read the story correctly). So they were not after high value easy to sell loot. What picture on those hard drives did the criminals want (cue dramatic music)?

Most certainly it seems like a custom job.

 

[Canon Rumors Guy]

What a terrible story, I just realized I didn't have an updated offsite backup... doing it now and signed up for an online backup plan.

 

[Maximilian]

What a terrible story, I just realized I didn't have an updated offsite backup... doing it now and signed up for an online backup plan.

So terrible, but at least one could react soon enough. Thank you, Craig.

 

[Famateur]

I know the feeling, having lost all 250 photos of my daughters birth. All I could recover were a half-dozen 640x480 versions I had e-mailed to relatives.

The company I worked for at the time was going to re-image everyone's laptops, so they provided a network share on which we could back-up our files, so I did -- including the birth images I had just uploaded to my computer a couple days before. They re-imaged the computer, then I went to gather my files from the network backup. Everything was there -- except my photos. The explanation from the IT manager: "Oh, we run a script that deletes any .jpg files because we don't allow storing photos on the network." Would have been nice to know BEFORE they asked us to back everything up there! Worked with them for two weeks scouring old nightly tape backups to try to recover the photos. No luck.

I'm not a professional, and my career is not on the line, but my "life's work" still means a great deal to me. This is why I now finish each session in Lightroom with a back-up to two identical external drives (plug 'em in, two clicks, go get a root beer, come back and done). One drive lives in the safe, and the other travels with me everywhere I go in my "man purse." I still hesitate to delete photos from the memory cards...

PS: For those of us who shoot RAW, it's critical that RAW files be backed-up, too, along with sidecars of the adjustments made (and/or back-up the Lightroom catalog with them, which is what I do). Recovering only an exported .jpeg, while MUCH better than nothing, is only a partial recovery if you lose the RAW files or if you have RAW files but lose all the work you did to process them.

 

[AcutancePhotography]

The explanation from the IT manager: "Oh, we run a script that deletes any .jpg files because we don't allow storing photos on the network." Would have been nice to know BEFORE they asked us to back everything up there!

That's terrible!! How can they operate like that? They don't tell you that they globally delete some file types until afterwards. I am really sorry to hear about this.

 

[Maximilian]

The explanation from the IT manager: "Oh, we run a script that deletes any .jpg files because we don't allow storing photos on the network." Would have been nice to know BEFORE they asked us to back everything up there!

That's terrible!! How can they operate like that? They don't tell you that they globally delete some file types until afterwards. I am really sorry to hear about this.

ditto. :'(
shame on those st%&!& admins.

 

[Famateur]

The explanation from the IT manager: "Oh, we run a script that deletes any .jpg files because we don't allow storing photos on the network." Would have been nice to know BEFORE they asked us to back everything up there!

That's terrible!! How can they operate like that? They don't tell you that they globally delete some file types until afterwards. I am really sorry to hear about this.

ditto. :'(
shame on those st%&!& admins.

Thanks. Yeah...my feelings, too. Unfortunately, this was several years before I started shooting RAW. I doubt their script would have cared about .cr2 files! Looking back, it's hard to avoid the "if only" thoughts, like having more than one memory card or immediately backing the photos up to an external drive and to my home desktop, but I was younger, stupider and poorer.

It often takes an experience like this for us to take backing up seriously...

 

[Famateur]

While different than theft, accidental deletion can cause some panic, so I'll share another quick experience that I hope helps someone:

My aunt somehow managed to delete all the photos she was attempting to transfer from her card to her computer. She was devastated. I installed Recuva (from Piriform Software), did a quick scan of the card and recovered all but two or three of the several hundred photos.

For many, how/why this works is common knowledge, but I'm sure there are a few members here for whom this will be new information:

When you delete a file, it is not actually deleted. Instead, the address of that file is marked as being free to use for saving other data. Until another file (or part of a file) is saved over the top of the old file (or parts of the file), it is still there on the disk. Recovery programs, like Recuva, can locate and restore those files. The sooner this recovery is attempted after a deletion, the less likely it is that something else was written over that file (or parts of the file) and the more likely it is you can recover it intact.

If you accidentally delete a file, immediately run a recovery program, and you should be able to get it back.

I hope this helps someone!

 

[LDS]

That's terrible!! How can they operate like that?

Well, it was a company laptop, as I understand, so it was subject to company policies as well. My advice is never mix your personal data with employer hardware. There are also ways to perform remote wipes, if needed, and I would not risk it if not under my control. There are also companies that when you're fired, you completely lose access to your PCs and network before they tell you, for security reasons.

About the system administrators, first they are bound to company policies, and they are responsible only for the company data, not yours. Also - and I know by experience - let some user sdo whatever they like and they'll put you in troubles

 

[jrista]

What a terrible story, I just realized I didn't have an updated offsite backup... doing it now and signed up for an online backup plan.

I would do an online plan...however, over the last six years and change, I have accumulated nearly three terrabytes of photography data, including original RAWs, modifications, TIFF exports, print versions, as well as all of the MASSIVE amounts of data you accumulate with astrophotography (well over a terrabyte of that alone, and I've been doing it only for a year and a half).

I use a combination of a NAS RAID device, and backups to bluray disc that I keep at my parents house. The BluRays have become significantly too small...it would be so nice if I could back up 100-200 gigs a disc...backing up 25 gigs a disc has become tedious.

 

[randym77]

I would do an online plan...however, over the last six years and change, I have accumulated nearly three terrabytes of photography data, including original RAWs, modifications, TIFF exports, print versions, as well as all of the MASSIVE amounts of data you accumulate with astrophotography (well over a terrabyte of that alone, and I've been doing it only for a year and a half).

I have more than that, and it's all backed up in the cloud. Many backup services offer unlimited storage.

If you're on dialup, uploading several TBs of data could be a problem, but with broadband, it's pretty painless. Most backup services have software that will run in the background and automatically upload when you're not using your connection. After the initial upload is done, updating is pretty quick.

I am considering using Amazon Prime as an additional backup. They are offering free unlimited storage of photos (including RAW files) for Prime members. Worth the $99/year...if their interface is any good. I haven't tried it yet.

 

[jrista]

I would do an online plan...however, over the last six years and change, I have accumulated nearly three terrabytes of photography data, including original RAWs, modifications, TIFF exports, print versions, as well as all of the MASSIVE amounts of data you accumulate with astrophotography (well over a terrabyte of that alone, and I've been doing it only for a year and a half).

I have more than that, and it's all backed up in the cloud. Many backup services offer unlimited storage.

If you're on dialup, uploading several TBs of data could be a problem, but with broadband, it's pretty painless. Most backup services have software that will run in the background and automatically upload when you're not using your connection. After the initial upload is done, updating is pretty quick.

I am considering using Amazon Prime as an additional backup. They are offering free unlimited storage of photos (including RAW files) for Prime members. Worth the $99/year...if their interface is any good. I haven't tried it yet.

It's not cheap to store that much data, though. I hadn't heard about the Amazon Prime thing...I already am a Prime member... You sure about that? Unlimited storage? If so, then I might just do that...

 

[Don Haines]

What a terrible story, I just realized I didn't have an updated offsite backup... doing it now and signed up for an online backup plan.

It is good to learn from these things.....