Back in the days when photographers used to shoot with film cameras, we would worry about the archival quality of our photos. How long would they survive before fading away into oblivion? We ourselves might only live another 40 or 50 years, but such a short lifespan for our photos would be unthinkable.
Looking back at color prints from the 1960s and 1970s, our fears were well-founded. Old Ektacolor prints have long since faded and shifted color toward the yellow. Cibachrome prints and Kodachrome slides are much better, but not immune. Whole collections of what were once professional-quality photos are now just interesting anachronisms.
The new generation of photographers, accustomed to shooting only digital, may laugh at such worries today. If a photo print fades, just fire up your computer and print another. Why worry? Digital ones and zeroes don't fade with time.
But there's a whole body of research that suggests such complacency is unfounded. Digital photos may fade away even faster than photographic prints; it's just that the failure mechanisms are different. Here's a link to an interesting article from an unlikely source that describes the problems with digital photography in some detail:
Long-term archiving: digital photography's Achilles' heel
Notes from Steve - Observations from Off the Beaten Path
