Photography is digital amber – beings, trapped in time; memories and emotions preserved for eternity.
I like this about photography. It’s the permanent physical manifestation of this transient and ephemeral phenomenon we call life.
Like a song or a scent, gazing on a photo will zap you back in time faster than the Star-trek teleporter. So I guess photography can almost as an ersatz time machine. Taking us back to the moment.
No matter how the world moves on and changes, the images of your life remain locked in this frozen time state. They will not move on, they will not forget it, they will not get over it, they will not change for better or worse, they will always be as it was. Images are that expression of that time, that will always be. And they don’t change, so in some cases we can take comfort in remembering that something that is now non existent once upon a time did. So while the images themselves don’t change, the world can. Photos have proven powerful tools as agents of change, since their invention so long ago.
I have photos of my parents, and once again I can feel happy when I look at them. The fun times and all the goofy stuff they did throughout the years, much of it all caught on film or pixels. I can look at these images without regret or sadness knowing that nothing can change the way they were. The images didn’t change but I have.
I have photos of friends old and new, of trips and experiences, and now with the ever present iPhone, I have photos of mundane moments that for some reason or other resonated with me as being somehow important. (I rarely delete!) Amongst all these, I feel grateful for all the experiences I have had in my life so far, and how fortunate I am to be able to continue to capture the beauty and all, that I see. Because all our human “stuff” is so changeable. And with these images time is stopped. And the moment is for keeps.
Photos change how people feel. And isn’t that the reason for it all?