Thousands of photographs are stored as plus and minus somewhere on different harddrives for indefinite time. From my experience the photopgraphs will be drawn out of absorbtion to the daylight or the screen respectively in rare cases.
The electronic stored photographs reach the visible sensual world with photo books. I can so unite photographs out of a project, a journey in a book and from time to time leaf through the book to throw an eye on the photographs. The for me most impressive photographs can so reach my rememberence and I can show and present my work to other humans.