I've been thinking about it lately. I have a few pictures of me as a baby and toddler, and obviously zero videos. I have no idea what I was LIKE as a baby and a toddler. My daughter on the other hand has this almost daily record of her life since she was born. She is 3 now and often revisits her own baby photos and seems to create this vision of herself as a baby, then as a toddler, that she is integrating into her sense of self, that I, or anyone in my generation, ever had. Our babyhood, and toddlerhood is forever lost to us.
As a hybrid photographer and artist, I find myself in a somewhat similar way of thinking. Interestingly enough, as I've started to edit more and more, I find myself with less and less images. This has been good to combat the cheapening, even if I still take a ridiculous amount of images weekly.
It really resonates when you talk about the images hanging on the wall in the past. I need to think on that more, and how strong an influence one or two family portraits have had on me. Cheers~
thanks for reading, glad the piece resonated with you :) I find the editing process helpful for a similar reason. It forces me to take a closer look at each image and decide which ones are worth devoting attention to
I'm a landscape painter, preferring to do my painting outside, from life. It's a way of experiencing a moment in time intensely. I don't get that experience with my smartphone camera. Yet I also take dozens of photos on my hikes...if I bring the phone along. Often, I'll see something and wish I had my phone, but then I remember that not everything is meant to be captured, but just to be seen and observed, however fleeting the moment.
That's a great attitude! It can be frustrating to stumble on a great photographic subject that ONE time you don't have a camera, but in those instances I also try (with varying success) to just appreciate that I saw it at all.
I shoot thousands of photos but after each meaningful trip or event, I use an app to create little paper books of my favorite photos. Now I have some small photo albums that will remain when all the hard drives die or can’t be accessed. It might be a way to manage/remember some of the photos you downloaded from the cloud.
I think there should be a place where photos can go before they are deleted, like a purgatory. And then a place where you can pretend to delete them. Because as soon as you do, there is always a reason you desperately need that old photo. It had the serial number on the underside of the Eames table that a buyer in Korea has to have.
I think there should be a place where photos can go before they are deleted, like a purgatory. And then a place where you can pretend to delete them. Because as soon as you do, there is always a reason you desperately need that old photo. It had the serial number on the underside of the Eames table that a buyer in Korea has to have.
Haha yes it does always seem like among the thousands of photos I never care to see again there’s that ONE that I need for some obscure reason and can’t find. Photo purgatory is a great concept. I may have to make that the name one of my organizational folders for the ones that kinda sorta spark joy.
!!! This is awesome. I look forward to watching. While my photos are now off the Cloud, the way they’re organized on my hard drive needs work, to say the least 😅 — I have a feeling this video will help with that.
Your post brings 2007 to mind, when both my 14-year old daughter and I joined Facebook, not of course entirely understanding what it was. At that time, you could see how many photos a person had up---that is, Facebook had that number displayed at the top of the page. In no time flat, I was horrified to discover that my daughter had 600 photos on Facebook. She and her friends would take photos with their phones at school, or a soccer game, or a party, and upload every single one of them to Facebook. It was my first experience of that kind particular brand of overload, and I remember feeling appalled by it.
I remember being on Facebook in high school when being tagged in a photo was the height of social success! The thought of how weird it was that hundreds of images of me existed on the internet didn't even cross my mind. It's only years later that I look back at that with skepticism and concern.
This is a really interesting topic and there is no doubt our relation to photos and cameras and memories has been altered by phone life. There have been some positives creatively in it for me, going back to when digital cameras became a thing. Because there was no limit on the number of shots that could be taken it allowed me to freely experiment with angles and camera position and low light for example. With earlier generations of iphones I found when using the pano function I could get strange and surreal results by moving the camera/phone erratically. I see this as a dadaist practice. But yes, the digital attics filled with a gazillion photos is overwhelming. Like you, I have no functional relationship with the cloud or dropbox any longer. I still use my phone, with intent, as a camera.
Thanks for sharing! I've also benefited creatively from using digital and phone cameras, and don't think there's anything wrong with those practices in themselves. Like you, I like how freely experimental they allow you to be with little consequence, and I use my terrible phone camera often to take reference images that go on to inform other work. P.S. Congrats on leaving the Cloud! I know now what an arduous process that can be 🫠
I've been thinking about it lately. I have a few pictures of me as a baby and toddler, and obviously zero videos. I have no idea what I was LIKE as a baby and a toddler. My daughter on the other hand has this almost daily record of her life since she was born. She is 3 now and often revisits her own baby photos and seems to create this vision of herself as a baby, then as a toddler, that she is integrating into her sense of self, that I, or anyone in my generation, ever had. Our babyhood, and toddlerhood is forever lost to us.
As a hybrid photographer and artist, I find myself in a somewhat similar way of thinking. Interestingly enough, as I've started to edit more and more, I find myself with less and less images. This has been good to combat the cheapening, even if I still take a ridiculous amount of images weekly.
It really resonates when you talk about the images hanging on the wall in the past. I need to think on that more, and how strong an influence one or two family portraits have had on me. Cheers~
thanks for reading, glad the piece resonated with you :) I find the editing process helpful for a similar reason. It forces me to take a closer look at each image and decide which ones are worth devoting attention to
I'm a landscape painter, preferring to do my painting outside, from life. It's a way of experiencing a moment in time intensely. I don't get that experience with my smartphone camera. Yet I also take dozens of photos on my hikes...if I bring the phone along. Often, I'll see something and wish I had my phone, but then I remember that not everything is meant to be captured, but just to be seen and observed, however fleeting the moment.
That's a great attitude! It can be frustrating to stumble on a great photographic subject that ONE time you don't have a camera, but in those instances I also try (with varying success) to just appreciate that I saw it at all.
I shoot thousands of photos but after each meaningful trip or event, I use an app to create little paper books of my favorite photos. Now I have some small photo albums that will remain when all the hard drives die or can’t be accessed. It might be a way to manage/remember some of the photos you downloaded from the cloud.
Such a great idea! I used to occasionally do this after a big trip too, but haven't in a long time. I'd love to get back into it!
I think there should be a place where photos can go before they are deleted, like a purgatory. And then a place where you can pretend to delete them. Because as soon as you do, there is always a reason you desperately need that old photo. It had the serial number on the underside of the Eames table that a buyer in Korea has to have.
I think there should be a place where photos can go before they are deleted, like a purgatory. And then a place where you can pretend to delete them. Because as soon as you do, there is always a reason you desperately need that old photo. It had the serial number on the underside of the Eames table that a buyer in Korea has to have.
Haha yes it does always seem like among the thousands of photos I never care to see again there’s that ONE that I need for some obscure reason and can’t find. Photo purgatory is a great concept. I may have to make that the name one of my organizational folders for the ones that kinda sorta spark joy.
Oh my goodness YESSS I hosted a Zoom call with some people about this very subject!
https://socialmediaescapeclub.substack.com/p/the-finally-organizing-your-digital
!!! This is awesome. I look forward to watching. While my photos are now off the Cloud, the way they’re organized on my hard drive needs work, to say the least 😅 — I have a feeling this video will help with that.
I’ve got digital photos in folders dating back to 2004 or so. Over 20 years of jumbled photos from assorted digital cameras and iPhones. I love it!
Your post brings 2007 to mind, when both my 14-year old daughter and I joined Facebook, not of course entirely understanding what it was. At that time, you could see how many photos a person had up---that is, Facebook had that number displayed at the top of the page. In no time flat, I was horrified to discover that my daughter had 600 photos on Facebook. She and her friends would take photos with their phones at school, or a soccer game, or a party, and upload every single one of them to Facebook. It was my first experience of that kind particular brand of overload, and I remember feeling appalled by it.
I remember being on Facebook in high school when being tagged in a photo was the height of social success! The thought of how weird it was that hundreds of images of me existed on the internet didn't even cross my mind. It's only years later that I look back at that with skepticism and concern.
This is a really interesting topic and there is no doubt our relation to photos and cameras and memories has been altered by phone life. There have been some positives creatively in it for me, going back to when digital cameras became a thing. Because there was no limit on the number of shots that could be taken it allowed me to freely experiment with angles and camera position and low light for example. With earlier generations of iphones I found when using the pano function I could get strange and surreal results by moving the camera/phone erratically. I see this as a dadaist practice. But yes, the digital attics filled with a gazillion photos is overwhelming. Like you, I have no functional relationship with the cloud or dropbox any longer. I still use my phone, with intent, as a camera.
Thanks for sharing! I've also benefited creatively from using digital and phone cameras, and don't think there's anything wrong with those practices in themselves. Like you, I like how freely experimental they allow you to be with little consequence, and I use my terrible phone camera often to take reference images that go on to inform other work. P.S. Congrats on leaving the Cloud! I know now what an arduous process that can be 🫠