As I'm sure any photo collector can tell you, the majority of photographs available are of either unknown (not identified) sitters or were taken by unknown photographers, or both! Sadly, millions upon millions of photographs are floating around antique shops and flea markets, and in many cases in family collections just waiting for someone to put a name to them. The large majority of these will never be identified and many are tossed in the trash by younger generations who come across these unidentified pics after the death of a parent/grandparent/aunt/uncle. A bigger problem faces us now in this age of digital cameras and SD cards - within a generation or two, there will no longer be photographic prints made, everything will be on memory cards or hard drives. What happens when technology comes out with new and improved storage mediums and pics are not or cannot be transferred to the new medium? They haven't the chance of survival that even the oldest of photographs has, because they were never printed.
I find it almost impossible to throw out any photograph, even of the unknown variety, because each one was taken for a reason and meant something to someone. They are our windows to that particular place and time. Here are a few examples of some of my unknown photos - maybe you'll recognize someone.
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