More Than a Thousand Words

Photography seems to be a life engaging art form. My early ‘point and shoot’ cameras included the ‘110 Pocket Camera’ with the flash bulbs that sat on top. Back then a roll of 12 or 24 or 36 film was a treasure trove and each click had to be exceptional – you carefully weighed the cost of the film and even more importantly the cost of film development with each shot.

In those bygone years photography was a lesson in extreme patience-once that roll of film was complete you placed it in a mailing envelope and sent if off to ‘Mystic Color Labs’ or one of their competitors and waited for what felt like an eternity to receive the prints back in the mail. I remember running into the Post Office daily to see if that return envelope had finally made it into our mailbox and I would sit with and revisit the collection of memories that ensued. Each photo was not only a memory but also an investment, a treasure, a gem.

I graduated to the Canon AE1 much later and enjoyed a photography class in college. It was there that we learned how to develop photographs in a dark room – in trays of chemicals-developer, stop bath and fixer. We experimented with pinhole cameras and edge printing and I began to see photography as more of an art form than a snapshot at a birthday party.

Looking at the world through a camera lens may help us to see it more clearly-or at very least encourages mindfulness and focus. You begin to view the world in wonderful snapshots worth preserving – moments of time you don’t want to release or forget. I have photos of my mom on my dresser and somehow they bring her into the room and into my life daily. They can’t help but to make me smile and remember the gift she was. There is a small framed photo our daughter has of my husband and I fishing out of the back of a boat when we were first dating. This 3”by 4” quietly brings back the magic of those early days of getting to know each other.

Photographs make us not only see something, but also make us feel something- to me that is the most decorated ambition of photography-a photo that stays with you long after it’s out of your sight. There is a picture of one of my sisters and I as very young children and I can see so clearly in that photo who we were, leading to who we are now.

Today the cell phone has opened the door to endless photos with instant gratification- easy options to delete, edit, filter, adjust, crop, post along with videos that remind me of life’s nuances. I once was in Alaska and a park ranger suggested we put down our phones and just enjoy the moment as it stood before us-I understood and appreciated her perspective but knew in my heart that I preferred to preserve it forever-however long that might be.

Now we still have album upon album of snapshots -mostly of our daughter growing-of family get togethers-Christmas Trees that look essentially the same year to year and of clear blue water vacations here and there. My hope is that they will be dusted off and treasured one day. But now our computers and cell phones and the illusive ‘Cloud’ hold most of these treasures- and I wonder, how will we preserve them for all time? Will they disappear once the next phone or computer arrives? I imagine it will be the same with our notes and letters-everything seems much more accessible but more impermanent and less treasured. It has become a ‘live in the moment’ world often cleared of sentimental debris and emotional clutter -memories deleted in a moment of time. I wonder if the children born in this digital age have photo albums or scrap books and boxes of saved memories from their childhood. I’m sure there are many new options on how to save these moments in time-holding onto those photos that you not only can see-but you can feel for all of time.