the other day a friend asked if i would like a photo of my kids that he had taken at an event attended by our families. it was a great shot admittedly, but i was still rather struck by the actual question itself. after all, i didn't take the picture - my friend did. could he really have thought that i didn't have enough pictures of my children already in my possession?
but that brief encounter led me to a consideration of an even more profound question on the topic of photography - namely, why the big fuss about photographs in the first place?
now to put it mildly, i have never been one to get excited over pictures, be they baby pics or wedding pics or travel pics or nature pics or whatever. for me, a picture is simply an image of someone or something caught at a particular moment in time. meh.
the way i look at it is this: if someone or something is so important that you feel compelled to capture an image of that someone or something with a 12.1 mp canon, well then you probably already have an image of that someone or something permanently etched into your memory. so once again the question arises: why the need for the snaps?
i once recall viewing a news story on tv about a man who risked his life by dashing into his burning home so that he could rescue the family photo album. huh?
and in recent times, it would appear that photographs are mostly brandished by insecure types wishing to emphasize the seeming adventure and excitement of their otherwise humdrum and uneventful lives. one look at my profile page on facebook will certainly attest to the truth of that assertion.
i suppose that when all is said and done, i prefer the authenticity of my memories to the artificiality of high resolution.
"there will be times when you will be in the field without a camera. and you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed. don't be bitter because you can't record it. sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is." - degriff
this is one way that a photograph can actually be put to good use (and yes, that is courteney cox from friends who was dating the lead singer of the band at the time of this video shoot):
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hey man. what do you have against pictures? I love pictures. i can't get enough of pictures. pictures capture that moment in time that you want to remember forever. just because an image is etched into your head doesn't mean you shouldn't make a hard copy of it. gezz
ReplyDeleteMemories usually leave out those tiny little details which all add up to make the moment even more special. For example, at the beach, you may remember that your child had the time of their life in the blue water which stretched for miles and miles; but are you going to remember the whole atmosphere? What the feel of the sand was? The color of the sky? If your child was younger then, and is older now, are you going to be able to remember what teeth were missing and which ones weren't at the time of the beach picture? It's all the little things in pictures that make them so special and enjoyable to look at.
ReplyDeletePhotography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.
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