Time passes and memories are all that we have. Each day fades into the next. Sometimes we remember things and sometimes we don’t. And time keeps endlessly marching on. Having a way to preserve our memories, whether they are significant events in our lives, like births and weddings, or just a fun Sunday afternoon at your grandparents, is vital to our society. Preservation of memories, freezing moments in time, seems to be a very ingrained quality that we have as humans. We want to remember those times; good times, bad times, just regular moments in our lives. It somehow legitimizes our existence.
Photographs are probably the number one way that people record their memories. Even just random snapshots can have significance. They can trigger a memory or make you laugh or cry once again. Photographs contain emotions and trigger our emotions anew. There really is an insidious power to photographs and photography that people rarely notice. I think because images are all around us all day long every day, and that they are used in so many ways from advertising to having something to post online, we take them for granted. Imagine a world without photographs. What would we have to preserve our memories. I am including video in this idea because that medium is quickly emerging in the consumer arena. Video is different than still photography, but it still serves many of the same core purposes. Without these media how would we adequately remember lost relatives and friends, or that cherished childhood pet?
Photography can be art or it can be just a snapshot, a stained and discarded piece of paper, or a lost digital file. Because it is so easy to record an image I think that we should take the time every once in a while to stop and appreciate the importance of those random images or those highly stylized and creative photographs. If you want to read more about the importance of photographs you should read, ‘Why Wedding Photographs Are So Important.’
We can’t stop the progress of time. But we can capture moments of it in fractions of a second on film or via a digital sensor. I think that photography is the human way of grasping at eternity, reaching out to capture just a fraction of a second to preserve it forever. No matter what the level of a picture it always contains time and emotion frozen within it’s boundaries.
Gary Miller
Houston Wedding Photographer
Eye Candy and Brain Veggies
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