When our parents and grandparents took photos it was to document. But it recently occurred to me that today’s generation take pictures to share, on facebook.. on instagram.. but these photos never seem to get printed. They’re snapshots that scream “Hey, look at my food!”
(I’m definitely guilty of doing this.) Our photos have turned into a way to share – with complete strangers – exactly what we’re doing at that exact time, rather then documenting the people we’re doing it with and the special times in our lives.
Recently my Grandmother passed away and when we sat down to look through photos, all of those photos meant something. They all had a story and through a sequence of a few photos we could figure out what that story was.
When I pass away, how will people look through my digital photographs? On a computer? There’s just something different about holding a photograph in your hand and passing it around the table – gathering around – laughing, sheading a tear; remembering.
What is going to happen to your photos when Facebook inevitably goes down the drain, or your computer crashes, or when CDs go the way of the floppy disk? Will you still have photos to hold in your hands?
Photographs are best viewed in print.