I have always loved being a photographer, but over the last while I have realized how important photographs are, not only as a means to remember loved ones and special events, but to reignite feelings of joy and happiness that we felt during those moments.
In fact, sometimes we even enjoy photos more as they get older. I smile fondly at pictures of my kids when they were toddlers, their little faces and clothes covered in food..I might have been a bit more frustrated when the photos were taken as I knew the amount of clean up that was ahead of me, but now, I just appreciate the food/toddler chaos images and smile, as those days are long gone and sometimes I wish I could go back to that time. I can't..but I have the photos to remind me. And the clean up was never that bad...usually. I treasure those photos and their ability to help me remember.
I was speaking to an old friend recently that I haven't connected with in a while. Her husband is not doing very well and is in palliative care. They spend their days now looking at their old photo albums and reminiscing. The albums bring them great joy and help bring back wonderful memories. Photographs not only capture special moments but they make sure that we won't forget them. Ever. I look at my wedding album and am grateful that I have it as a number of people in the photos are no longer with us. But they live on with the happy memories of that day in my wedding album.
So many of our photos are on digital devices and we even have digital photo frames that we can update for relatives virtually. But there is something to be said for looking at an actual print. To be able to hold it or look at it in an album. To curl up beside the fireplace under a blanket and look at photos with your loved ones. Those moments can be just as special as the moments they captured.
Or, in the case of another one of my friends, she joked that she used her photos of her children for another purpose. She put cute baby pictures of them up on her fridge so that when they were in the throes of hormonal teenage angst and drama, she could look at the photos and remind herself that at one point, she actually did love them. Of course she never stopped loving her kids, but this actually helped her ground herself during challenging parenting moments.
Photographs bring us so much. I would argue that they actually grow in value after you take them. So keep taking them. And don't forget to print some of them too.
Lorna
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