Thursday, January 15, 2009

Snapshots of our lives

In this digital age, where most of our pictures remain on our laptops and life speeds quickly past, a photo is indeed a snapshot of our lives. A moment caught in time. A visual aide to help us remember special moments or people we would have otherwise forgot.

Since December I have been to Iowa, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, & Oregon, not to mention all of the states I have driven across. While I have been packing, moving, and driving across the country I have thrown many things away, said goodbye to dear friends and relatives and have been greeted by new ones. I have had to learn to let go and move on.

Because of this, I long to hold on to special moments in my life. If we cant hold on to people, or to time, or even to places, we can hold on to a picture of those things. We can hold in our hands a memory. We can cherish a person and remember a special place.

In a way these photos come to life, because they carry so much life within them. Not just my own photos, but the photos of others as well...

If you stare at them long enough you can imagine what the child in the photo is going to do next, or what that young man is thinking. If I stare at my own photos long enough I can remember the thoughts I had while that photo was being taken, or the smell of the flowering tree in the backround.

Im not going to include a photo in this post, instead, I want you to take a photo that may be tucked in a drawer, or in the original envelope you received it in, and look at it again. This time remember. Remember the thoughts, the emotions, the smells, the sights, the weather that day, or the feeling of that persons warm hand on your shoulder as they squeezed you to say "cheese".

And maybe, just maybe, you will put that picture on your wall instead of hidden in your drawer...
Jjay

1 comment:

catherine simms said...

thank you for your inspiration on photos! Isnt it hard to find a favorite?

 
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