I found pictures from the prom (he was my date), from our senior class trip, and that was about it. There's more in our yearbook, but in going through all of the photos I realized how much how we take pictures has changed with the advent of the smartphone.
The box is filled with pictures with fingers, fuzzy pictures, over- or under-exposed shots...there's a lot of crap photos in there, because you didn't see them until they were developed. You could totally prank someone with this delayed gratification aspect of film development (the Mister Rogers movie includes a great story of such a prank). Most of the pictures are also of events, of trips or milestones or visits. There were a couple exceptions, pictures of my dorm rooms in college and pictures of my best friend's first apartment, but otherwise the photos all chronicled something concrete, like a graduation, or a trip to the shore.
It's so different now.
Now we are able to chronicle everyday aspects of our lives, because there IS NO LIMIT to the pictures we can take and distribute digitally. I don't have any pictures with fingers in them, or fuzzy pictures, or accidental foot-or-lap pictures that survive, because when I see them on my Google Photos app, I delete them. And usually I see them right after I've taken them, so I get to have a do-over. And that's lovely but also kind of depressing, that we can so carefully curate our paparazzi'd lives with this technology. Don't like the chins? Take another picture and delete that hideous beast. I guess the only exception to this is other people's pictures of you -- the ones that you're tagged in and would never have made your camera roll on your own phone but show up awkwardly on social media.
Initially it made me sad, because I have all these memories of my friend and goofiness in the halls at school and in choir, and bell choir, and behind the stage at musicals...and there is very little photographic evidence of those candid moments. At the same time, it makes the handful of pictures I DO have that much more precious.
It fills me with the urge to print out more of my zillions of pictures of my everyday life, like a yearbook each year of our (entirely fingerless) moments, for us to look back on and hold in our laps and have in our possession before someone passes away.
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| Rest in peace, my friend. |
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I’m so sorry for the loss of your friend. Sending you hugs and love as you remember him.
ReplyDeleteI actually loved how inconvenient photos use to be. I’m not one for having a camera in my face and the ease of photography means that often most visits and moments are spent with people behind a camera-type device instead of being in the moment. And though one can argue that they have photos to remember those moments more often now, the genuineness of being in those moments is often lost. It’s no longer as precious.
I love seeing the old photos for this reason. And I love this photo of you from high school.
Thank you, Cristy. I so agree with the in-the-moment piece of things. I agree that now there is less being present and more trying to curate what your experience looks like, for the personal approval of the masses. It's weird. When I was in Nashville, we realized that three days in we hadn't taken any pictures of us, but that was more "wow, we're having a great time and really experiencing this friend reunion" than a disappointment. And we fixed it eventually. So I'm with you in mourning the specialness of photos as they were, and the way we used to experience things in life, also.
DeleteI am so sorry for the loss of your friend. I am giving you a hug across the miles.
ReplyDeleteI am also wistful about the way we used to photodocument our lives. Even though what we have now is "better," I still feel like we've lost something, for all the reasons you say.
Thank you, Lori.
DeleteYes, it's a catch-22, right? You can document more, but it's also not entirely real and you lose the enjoyment of the moment in trying to get just the perfect shot.
I;m so sorry for the loss of your friend and so amazed at your ability to write a great commentary just about taking pictures. We lost a friend to ALS a few years ago, and he loved photography. I asked him to take photos of one of my field hockey matches (this was back in the late 90s) and I went through my photos boxes to find the photos he took. I feel I can revisit his memory by looking at those photos and seeing things through his eyes. Wired huh
ReplyDeleteThat is so beautiful -- that you can remember your friend through the photo he took, and the perspective he gave you. I feel like when someone passes it gives us the chance to go through old memories and reflect back on our own lives, which is a gift. And thank you, for the commentary compliment and the condolences.
DeleteI'm so sorry you lost your friend.
ReplyDeleteI really love this, because I think about photos. My travel photos (events) are preserved in my photobooks. But like you, I have boxes of other miscellaneous photos taken over the years. And now I have folders - carefully saved and backed-up - of digital pics taken the last decade or so. But I haven't done anything with them, and you're reminding me that I should. Pics of my bookclub's end-of-year awards ceremony (The Gorgies), or of family visits, etc etc. I have done nothing with photos of my mother and father, both gone now. I thank you for the reminder.
Oh, and what a coincidence you should talk about fuzzy fingers, etc, as today I posted this on my daily blog: https://taketwo365.wordpress.com/2018/08/14/an-ode-to-the-camera-strap/
I love the camera strap post! So funny. And I'm glad I helped spur the reminder to collect the pictures. It is so easy to let them live in digital form, because we have SO MANY that it can be overwhelming to pick and choose them into albums. But I think it's necessary to do that so that they don't get lost in the webs.
DeleteThank you for your sympathies, he was a great guy.
I am sorry for the loss of your friend.
ReplyDeleteBut, YES! This exactly. Going digital has taken SO much away for all that it has given us in return. I love how looking at photos (like this adorable prom picture) you can clearly identify the decade in which it was taken. Everything about the prom
Picture screams 90’s! You were (ARE) so adorable...looks at all that gorgeous, curly hair!!
I am in the medical imaging field, and I was just lamenting to a co-worker a few weeks ago how going digital has made us much less careful, because we can always retake the shot. On film, you would maaaaybe try twice. You wouldn’t waste the film. Remember how expensive the film was, not even including developing?! Nowadays people I work with can’t remember to plug in the machines, and just 15 years ago we were worried about fogging an entire darkroom. It’s so crazy.
Thank you, Charlotte.
DeleteYes, it's true -- older pictures, ones actually printed at the time have a definite quality that dates them. It IS such a 90's picture, isn't it? That was 1994. I mourn the loss of all that hair, when did it go from mermaid hair to thinning and unable to grow past my shoulders? Ah, aging... I agree that digital allows us to be sloppy, in addition to trying to get the "perfect" shot, because there's no cost to it. Although I do love being able to take a zillion pictures of butterflies in the garden to catch that perfect wings-up or wings-down shot. :) Interesting about implications in medical imaging, too... didn't think about that connection!
I am so sorry for the loss of your friends.
ReplyDeleteI get this because I recently picked up one of my photo albums to show my goddaughter. She said, What's that? --Pointing to a finger. She couldn't understand why I put it I the album. (Funny shot)
May your smiles of memory come soon after your tears of loss.
Thank you so much for the condolences. Yes, I can imagine that young people would be so puzzled by why a finger shot could make it into an album -- I have so many that were great shots minus that fuzzy diagonal, but it was the only shot I had so in it went! Interesting what kids are going to think about the things we didn't realize were antiquated. :)
DeleteI am very sorry about the loss of your friend. <3
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, it was my experience with infertility that really got me back into keeping photo albums. I was so depressed but I also knew life was passing me by and I wasn't appreciating what I DID have. Instead of judging myself for my lack of gratitude, I started ordering prints of pictures I took on my phone and put them into photo albums. I needed a physical copy of the good moments to hold in my hands to believe that there were good parts to my life. I went a little overboard at first and I have a lot of photo albums for about a three-year period, but it was an effective coping strategy for me. I've scaled back, but I still enjoy ordering prints and organizing them into albums. Especially without have kids' birthdays and school years as natural milestones, my photo albums help me track the years.
Joel’s death stunned me. I knew him through you, of course, and the smiling, happy guy I saw in various performances. It’s always shocking to lose a friend, especially when it’s so sudden. I find that each passing takes me back to my own box of fading photos, and I spend time with those precious memories. Will we be able to do that in years to come, in this digital age?
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry for your loss. He looks like he was a wonderful person, from the one picture you did have and share. He has a spark that shines through.
ReplyDeleteI have always been a picture person. As soon as they were available I had a disposable camera in my purse at all times. I have made photo albums and books since I was a young teen. There are times I actively ruminate over events I didn't have a camera for (I left it at home when I was on my honeymoon!! the horror!) but I acknowledge that there is a time and place for photographs, and a time to just BE.
Belated condolences on the loss of your friend. 42 is WAY too young. :( I loved and totally agree with your thoughts on photography and how digital has changed the way we take & look at photos. In between/before digital, I did become a scrapbooker, and that also made me think about the photos I took & why I took them in a different way. I'm grateful for the benefits of digital photography & phone cameras, but yes, something has been lost along the way...!
ReplyDelete