Why do we save pictures? Maybe to relive the memories they hold, to meet a social pressure that's set upon us, or maybe to continue a tradition passed onto us by our family members. Regardless every generation since the invention of the camera has been infatuated with documenting our lives and preserving snapshots of our day-to-day adventures.
In our lecture with Dr. Vrooman we dove into this question. Why do we feel the need to document our lives with images? Before photographs we had written documentation of our daily household lives. Then we slowly moved into documenting our household lives through pictures and videos. But in class we barely coved the more morbid topic of unhappy photos.
It may seem understandable to the average person for why we want to keep some of our most happy moments documented, but what about the more depressing? In the book The Qualified Self: Social Media and the Accounting of Everyday Life, it covered the tough topic of postmortem death. (p. 78) Humphreys covers the idea through different generations and compares the different stigmas about them. In the 19th century it was a common thing to have your deceased infant photographed as if they were sleeping, in order to preserve their life. But, in our current day and age, although some families would like to document this event, the general public may either wish for that to be a private family photo or they may with to mourn with that family.
So, to celebrate a life seems like a justifiable means to document lost loved ones, but what about war? Like Vrooman covered in class, we all have to go through our loved ones belongings to divvy up their photos and belongings amongst the family. Sometimes you may even stumble upon unexpected items.
As we were going through my grandmothers house this past July of 2020, me and my mom found a tiny box that was shoved into the back of her closet. In it we found tiny 4"-5" in. photos of my grandfather standing next to two dead men in the middle of a jungle, somewhere in the pacific islands during WWII. In the moment my mind said COOL!!!, but in thinking about it now, why would he keep these?
Why would he keep a memory that changed him so much? My mom told me he never picked up another gun, not even to hunt, when she was younger. So why keep such a graphic image that hurt him? the only answer I can come up with is to remember.
Just like how Humphreys talks about 9/11. (p. 86) Sometimes we share stories verbally, through text, or just through pictures to remember the significance behind them. For my grandpa is was to remember the pain war caused him and thousands of others around the world. For people who survived 9/11 its to remember loved ones lost, or to remember the feeling of national pride during our lowest point as a country.
Photos bring about remembrance to unite us in commonality. For my generation, we use photos and social media to connect with one another when we aren't allowed to socialize like we used to.
So why did Robert Cornelius take that "selfie"? To share with generations to come the importance of that event and to connect with others who will follow in his footsteps.
No comments:
Post a Comment