I have been really looking forward to posting about this topic! Photography is something I am very passionate about. Hence why I’ve decided to make a career out of it. But today I want to talk a little bit about why photos matter. Why should you go through all the trouble to get your family dressed up and get pictures taken? Why should you pull out your phone to document the silly things your kids do? And why should you take the time to gather all the pics on your camera and phone and get them printed?
Our photographs really tell us what is important to us. My sister takes tons of photos of her dog and she will print every photo I take of him with my nice camera and put them up on her wall. That’s because she absolutely loves her dog Fenway.
When you ask people what they would rescue from their home if it was burning, most people will respond with the photo album or computer with the digital files. The impulse to save those recorded memories is powerful. We preserve the most important events in our lives (birth, birthdays, marriages, holidays, etc.) They are our story! Our legacy!
Family History is an important thing in my culture and religion. I believe family is very important and I love to read stories and look at photos from ancestors. There is this one photograph of my grandma hanging in her basement that looks exactly like me when I was 8. When I was younger I wondered to myself “Hmm I don’t remember getting that photo taken, and why is it in black and white?!” I laugh about that now but I love that we look alike. She is actually one of my biggest heroes and it's an honor to be her granddaughter. Our photographs will most likely outlive us and our posterity will look to them to get an idea of what we were like, and what it was like to live in the time we do. Photographs matter because they freeze moments in our lives which pass remarkably fast and which seem to have little importance to us at the time. They are pieces to the larger picture of our lives.
Going along with that, photography is a medium that allows us to freeze moments of time to hold onto. Photos can help us remember things like experiences, emotions, and lessons learned. For example this photo is from when I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I served for 18 months in Mérida, Yucatán in México.
In this photo I had been in México for about 9 months it reminds me of my feelings for Esmeralda, her son, and her little sister , the love I feel for them. I also get a little teary eyed because I lost communication with them and I know they were going through a really hard time so I worry about them. But most of all I feel joy that God let our paths cross and helped me feel a portion of the love that He has for them-that alone fills me up!
Photos really do speak louder than words. These next photos are of my little brother when he turned 8 years old. There is only so much I can say about him with words but he has the most spunky personality that truly shines in photos of him.
Whatever your reason is I think photography is a great investment. Freeze the moments in your life, cherish them, back them up on your computer, print them out, and put them up on your wall!
Last photo I want to show you is a moment that I will never forget, I’m so glad we stopped to take a picture so we can always look back on the night that my sweetheart asked me to marry him.
I'd love to hear your thoughts! Why are photos important to you?? What do you do to preserve your memories through photos or other means??
