How would you handle losing a decade’s worth of your photography? Professional documentary photographer Jennifer Little is dealing with it gracefully, all things considered. Her house was burglarized in late September, leaving her only one large-format camera out of the nine she owned, and hardly any external hard drives, which she used to back up her life’s work:
This is crushing for Little, who’s had her images featured in galleries, museums, newspapers, and magazines across the United States. She’s finished one coffee table book on the fight over water rights in America, and was working on another—on an indigenous Chinese family—until all that work was stolen, too.
A photo from one of Little’s project
As she told news station KPIX 5:
“I’ll probably have to write off the project from China completely because it’s so expensive to go there, and I’ve sort of lost all the groundwork documentation that the whole project was based on.”
If anyone has any information about the whereabouts of Little’s photos, she can be reached at JenniferLittle4@gmail.com. She’s offering a reward for her hard drives’ safe return—no questions asked.
Like This Article?
Don't Miss The Next One!
Join over 100,000 photographers of all experience levels who receive our free photography tips and articles to stay current:
tragic. I hope somehow there’s a happy ending to this …
What is amazing is that a business would not keep at least one BU off premises. Not only thieves but fire is the bane of a pro photographer that relies on keep BU all in one location. I know of an accountant that did just that and lost everything for clients when a fire occurred. BU BU BU but one should be off premises.
As Jennifer probably now realizes, photographs that are of value, either monetary or emotional value, should be backed up and stored at a separate location.