1 May 2020 | A different lens?

Google Photos sent me an interesting message last week, showing an image I had taken exactly eight years ago. It took me back to a particularly memorable day – our daughter’s MSc graduation. The digital photos stored on my computer are all filed in date order, which gives me the chance to revisit rather different times, from the midst of lockdown. For instance, I discovered that two years ago this coming week we were on a short break in Amsterdam. I’m sharing two photos from that trip in this week’s blog. Perhaps you too will be using your store of photos to travel back in time, given that that’s the only kind of long-distance travel we’re currently allowed! 

Amsterdam | 3 May 2018

Photos have a unique ability to freeze a moment of time. Once the shutter button is pressed, that moment is preserved for posterity, if you choose to keep the image. When first invented, Oliver Wendell Holmes called photography ‘the mirror with a memory’. Back in the day, we recorded the past in diaries and autobiographies, now it’s more likely to be in the images in your photos or social media account.

Photos can trigger our memories, like certain smells or tastes. Recently, like some of you I guess, I’ve been sorting through boxes of old photos and slides, passed down from my late parents. It’s a bewildering task as I don’t recognise everyone in the photos and few are captioned. Which to keep and which to discard? One image that stopped me in my tracks was a small monochrome photo of our front room, empty of people, evidently taken in my early childhood. It immediately unlocked many happy memories of that room, that for nearly sixty years had lain forgotten. 

Another arresting image was a colour slide of people chatting outside the Methodist Church we attended in West London, taken after a morning service in probably the mid-1960s. It was fascinating to be reminded of these people and, also, to notice our ethnic diversity and the fact that almost all the women wore hats to church!

Discovering those two photos, it struck me that perhaps we don’t take enough photos of ordinary everyday scenes, items and activities. We often restrict our photography to commemorating family occasions or documenting our holidays. If you have a smartphone you always have a camera with you, so why not take more photos of how things are during this very unexpected period in our history – especially of instances of kindness and hope? Such images could be invaluable to historians in the future and could awaken memories for those who by then will have become the older generation.

It struck me, too, that we owe it to children and grandchildren to caption our photos, by writing on the back or tagging them if they’re digital. Otherwise, how will they know why and when we took the image and who features in the picture? There is, incidentally, something potentially very evocative about writing on a photo. It lends your voice, as it were, to the photo and links the photo intimately to you – to your unique handwriting. Now, whilst we’re necessarily spending more time than usual at home, could be a great opportunity to write some of those captions. Naturally, it’s worth regularly printing some of your photos, individually or as a photobook, otherwise your memories are too reliant on digital media, which can fail or become obsolescent.

Amsterdam | 5 May 2018

Photography can be a great way of maintaining your health and wellbeing. It can help get you out of the house and boost your creativity, independence and mobility. You don’t need a sophisticated camera. Nowadays I take a lot of pictures on my smart phone. Photographers sometimes talk about their camera ‘taking them for a walk’. It’s a good spur to get out and about and you don’t have to go far: you can start in your own back garden - now that spring is here there are a variety of colours and shapes for the camera. 

Photography can help to open our eyes to the sheer beauty and wonder of God’s Creation. Try focussing on small details as well as the general picture. It might also be a chance to make more abstract images. It’s also worth deliberately doing your photography at different times of day, to experiment with the effects of changing light. Hopefully, photography will help you preserve some good memories and experiences during these very challenging times.  

Philip

You might like to enter the latest Darton Longman & Todd 'Spirituality in Photography' photo competition, on the theme of 'Hope'. It has just been launched on 1 May. We can reassure you that the judges are strictly impartial and entries anonymous at the point of judging - just in case you happen to recognise one of the judges!