Preserving History and Salvaging Memories

What do you think of when you look at an old photograph?

Maybe it reminds you of better times or great moments with loved ones… for me, looking at an old photograph brings back so many memories, emotions, feelings, events, people, places, scents, basically the whole scene is brought back to my mind and played over and over again, but I not only dream and remember this, I am there once again with all those people, scents, feelings… A photograph helps me relive a moment in time… deep enough yet? Just wait 🙂

But do you ever think about how much of an effect a photo is going to have on you in the future? In other words, when you are shooting or making a photograph do you really think about the idea of preserving a memory or stopping time?

Sometimes we do it intuitively… if something funny or interesting happens you take your camera out right away because you know you want to remember that moment.

Sometimes we do it because we know we are going to loose whatever we are photographing… think about those photographers that seek to preserve old buildings or places that are about to be torn down and they photograph them in an effort to remember those places that were significant in some personal way. Take Vivian Maier for instance, she spent basically her entire life documenting different cities, people, and basically the life she lived in the 60s, but none of it would have ever surfaced to the public if John Maloof hadn’t found all these boxes of info. Find out more about this amazing almost lost story right here: http://www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian-maier/history/ If that doesn’t inspire you to make photographs yourself maybe this next person will.

Meet Holly Spring, the most loving and dedicated mother I have come across. Holly portray’s her 4-year-old daughter Violet in the most whimsical manner to show her she can be anything she wants.

                              

Violet was born with Hirschsprung’s Disease and no left hand and after almost loosing her life when she was 2, Holly decided to start taking photos of her daughter in an effort to capture memories. Check it out: http://sfglobe.com/?id=3813&src=share_fb_new_3813 You could never tell this beautiful girl has any problems, until you look closer at her arms, but it doesn’t even matter because out of any bad situation someone can be inspired to photograph, to be passionate about something, and find happiness in something they previously didn’t see.

A photograph requires much more than one glance, you have to truly see it to find the emotion and significance behind it, but without this human need to preserve history and memories we wouldn’t have photographs such as these.