The Photos We Take

Currently I have 42,405 photos on my iPhone. I’ll give you a moment to process that… Yes, you read that correctly. Don’t ask me how it happened, they’re just there. Which got me to thinking about all the photos we take over the course of our lives. I’m not sure when we became photo hoarders, but let’s be real. We ALL have tons of photos either on our phones, computers, CD’s, photo albums or loose in a box somewhere. I have them in each of those and I’m not ashamed of it. But I am wondering what I am going to do with all of them, because the truth is, who really wants my 42,405 photos?

I read a blog recently where the author lamented about her children not wanting her china, the old baby doll that her daughter couldn’t live without for six years, or the collectible beanie babies her son just had to have when he was eight. They didn’t want anything from her or their grandmother either. So who will want our photos? Will our children? Will their grandchildren? I doubt it. Then why collect them? Why, indeed. What will happen to all the billions of photos out in the world when this new generation grows up and decides nothing is worth keeping? I think about this a lot.

I think about all the photo albums my parents have shoved in an armoire in Arizona and I smile. Unlike our children, I know that hidden in those albums are secrets and stories too great to throw away. I know that there are faces, names, and places long gone or forgotten within the bindings of these books. But still they hold memories too precious to dismiss. The photos may mean nothing to me, but I know that at the time, my parents captured a moment in their lives that meant something special to them. My job, when I look through these photos, will be to find that magic that they so wanted me to see fifty or sixty years later. To them, as their memories fade, they are there to remind them of the life they had; their marriage, babies, travels, weddings, important moments they didn’t want to ever forget.

Which brings us back to my 42,405 photos that only date back to 2004. (Forget that I’ve been taking photos since I was ten when I got my first instamatic camera!) What will I do with all of my photos? I will do what my father has been doing this past year, notating each with a comment or a thought. So that one day I, yes, me, myself and I, can look back at my own life  and remember each and every special moment I spent with family and friends and my amazing dogs. Because let’s be real here… there are A LOT of dog photos. And for all those nature photos I took along the way, I’ll make myself a coffee table book for my own house. Maybe I’ll even sell it to someone who has never seen the beauty I was able to captured on my travels.

But I’m not going to worry about who wants or doesn’t want my photos, because the truth is… I don’t care about anyone but me. There, I said it. IF my children or grandchildren decide my photos are cool and want to have them, great. If they should throw them out, after I’m gone, of course… then be my guest. But I’ll tell you this, they will never know the real me. The real me that marveled at sunsets, flowers and oceans. Who never turned down an adventure or created her own. They will never know how fully I loved my family with every ounce of my body or could not imagine being without a dog by my side. Because my photos… and your photos… capture each of us in ways that no words could ever do. The look in our eyes, the smiles on our faces, even sadness that may have been caught, tells the viewer who we really are. And if that isn’t reason enough to keep shooting photos, or keeping them, than I don’t know what is. They say that African tribesman are frightened by having their photo taken, they think the camera will capture their soul… Well, I hope my photos do capture mine… because my soul is rich in love, laughter and family.