Monday, April 21, 2014

Pondering over Pictures

(April 8- 2014)

**Any unauthorized reproduction of images/photographs displayed on this site in any form is strictly forbidden.**


Since the inception of my blog I have started taking a lot more pictures. I thought it would be a good way to compliment my written work with having visual aids to enhance my adventures. With amassing all those photos that got me to pondering…


Over the years I have taken only a few pictures of places that I have been, or snapped a couple off at a family gathering. (I know I am not unique in doing this -darn). However, I have to admit I have probably taken more pictures of my cats over the years than of my own family. (Horrible, isn’t it) 


I wouldn’t consider myself even an amateur photographer; I just think of myself as a ‘picture taker’ of sorts. Half the time I end up cutting off someone’s head or the subject I was taking ended up as a blur. Lucky technology has caught up to my inadequate photography skills and now it makes things very easy, like point and click. I still get the odd bad shot; at least my success rate has risen substantially J


Obviously my unintentional blur effect still creeps in once in awhile -
Several shots later and my cats got bored and stopped posing for me


I was still a “twinkle” in my Dad’s eye back then
I am lucky, my Mom and Dad have always been avid keepers of family memories. They have a basement full of plastic totes overflowing with pictures. On several occasions I got lost for an entire day wading through all those photos! From one generation onto the other, some handed down to create an even greater span of people and memories. I just love the feel and look of old pictures;  crinkle cut edges and sepia tones, they draw me in with that nostalgic feel. 


MaMére & Mom

It evokes a simpler time, the ‘good ‘ole days’. Personally I never did quite understand why people from that era called it the good old days, I didn’t see anything simple or good about lugging big blocks of ice from house to house (My PaPére [Grandfather] actually did that) or being on food stamps and rations because of the war.  Perhaps it may be just because life ran at a slower pace back then, it was more “pure” to the generation of that time. 



MaMére, Uncle, Mom
My Dad even looked cool sitting on Santa!
It is hard to believe that home computers didn’t even exist when some of these pictures were taken, let alone digital cameras. My Mom is still ‘old school’ when it comes to her photos, she insists on putting them in photo albums, of course after my Dad prints them from the computer (a modern convenience in which my Mom reluctantly allowed my Dad to have J


I can see where she is coming from wanting her pictures printed out, I feel more of a connection when I hold a photo in my hand, rather than looking at them on a flat computer screen. - I don’t think she really trusts computers – wink


I love this picture – My Mom calls it her ‘Colgate Smile’ - lol
When my parents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary (impressive, huh – wow, has it really been almost six years!) I decided that I would make a “Here is your life” memory book for them.

I descended into the cold depths of their cellar (really, it is cold down there!) and pulled out the plastic tombs of memories from their dark closet crypt. Inside I unearthed an additional smaller cardboard tomb, it was an inherited selection of even older photos that lay scattered about in no particular order. I was an archaeologist wading through the mounds of precious artefacts, sorting and pausing at the interesting images that were telling a story, while trying to fit the pieces together.

Black and white, yellowing edges, faded and creased with age; piece by piece I gathered up the moments in time. As I explored deeper I knew the instant I had hit another era just by the style of photo I held. (it also helped that most were dated on the back J) The 1970’s had a peculiar look, lending a surreal quality to them. The colour gave it an almost unnatural look, like someone had decided to paint an old black and white  – (or maybe it was just the style of clothes back then –wink



Can you tell it is 1971

Curious, I later discovered that it has to do with colour saturation and contrast and how cameras used to work back then – photography stuff, but I am not a photographer, I am just a picture taker. J  A small part of me took offence to the term that was used to describe the era, and how you could get that ‘vintage’ look in your photos of today. – I don’t feel vintage, at least not yet –wink 

I was getting closer to the current decade as I approached the 90’s. (Okay, I still had another 20 odd years to go J) I was a witness to the natural progression of aging while I was also reminded of the ones who were no longer with us as they faded out of view.

                       
Sis & Me


I realized how important, really important, all these pictures were to me. The photos I held were memorializing all those precious moments in our life together. Even though in some of them I was too young to remember, they told my family’s story, preserving a section of our lives while serving as a visual resource for the moments in time we shared. 


Uncle, Mom, Sis, Me

Time has a way of making things fuzzy and I had forgotten many occasions through the years, but when I seen a photo it immediately transported me back to the exact moment in time or I recalled a story my parents had told me. As I sorted through the decades a spectrum of feelings were conjured up from the depths of my soul. I was immensely aware that one day if memory fails I might find solace in these old photographs again...



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This post would of ended there until recently when I seen a newscast about a man named John Maloof,  he had discovered photographs from an unknown ‘Street Photographer’ after he bought a pile of boxes at auction. [Street photography is an art photography that features the human condition within public places and does not necessitate the presence of a street or even the urban environment.]  

The photographer was Vivian Maier, 1950-1990 she was a nanny living in Chicago with a passion to take pictures. She took thousands of photographs over her lifetime and just hid them away from public view, even her closest friends did not know about her passion.

For some reason I cannot explain a sense of profound sadness overwhelmed me at that moment… a captivating story in images… a woman’s passing… mortality… 

Then I contemplated over my own old paper photographs, crammed into my own tombs of plastic, where will they end up when I am gone and no one is left to cherish them as I had…would it even matter…

One day soon, I must return to the depths of the cellar and
take another trip down ‘memory lane’
 
J
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**Any unauthorized reproduction of images/photographs displayed on this site in any form is strictly forbidden.**



22 comments:

  1. A picture paints a thousand words, Sandy. It captures the attention of the reader. Imagine the post you just wrote without the photos. How many people would read it?

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  2. I really enjoyed this walk down memory lane. It also served as a reminder for me to start remembering to take pictures. I mean to but then get caught up in the moment and forget but pictures bring back great memories. Thanks for sharing yours.
    Lenie

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  3. I was particularly touched by the last part you wrote, as well as of course your own family photos. I love photographs, particularly old ones of anyones life. Unfrtunately during a period of depression, my mother throughout almost all of our old family photo's. Fortunately I have some. But one's life in a shoebox is a bizarre and slightly disturbing concept.

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    1. That's true for me as well. Last part is very touching. I love pictures and by adding those pictures, you have added life to the post. Thank you for sharing these Sandy!
      Regards,
      Kumar

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  4. I have taken this journey down memory lane more than once and it always emotional. I did once compile a series of albums outlining my mums entire life from the beginning (1926) and then me and my siblings. Amassed over 10,000 photos and are all now in chronological order. Took years but is something I am very proud of. As with your mum though, my mum also insisted on physical photos for albums. Digital was not here thing :)

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  5. I have taken this journey down memory lane more than once and it always emotional. I did once compile a series of albums outlining my mums entire life from the beginning (1926) and then me and my siblings. Amassed over 10,000 photos and are all now in chronological order. Took years but is something I am very proud of. As with your mum though, my mum also insisted on physical photos for albums. Digital was not here thing :)

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  6. I've sorted through, made copies, and divided among siblings the photograph collections of my parents and my mother-in-law. It was an interesting trip down memory lane and a look into the life of ancestors before I was born. I've created a special album for myself from what I kept of my parents' photos. I have yet to do that with my mother-in-laws, but probably will soon. I particularly appreciated when my mother or mother-in-law had written names (and maybe dates) on the back of old photos. I wonder what the next generations will do with all the massive digital collections now being created

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  7. I agree, I can get lost for hours looking through old photos. This post reminds me of a time I was at a rummage sale and found a large family photo album for sale, filled with all their photos. I thought it was so sad that there was apparently no one left to pass down the photos and describe them. Like history just ended there for that family. I hope that doesn't happen to all my photos some day!

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  8. I too am a picture taker of sorts. I'm more of an amateur then a true photographer but it really is kinda fun. Pictures do add allot to any written word, article or post as yours did. They do bring back so many memories. It makes the quality of the image far less important then what it documents, so keep on snapping and writing about it all. :-)

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  9. Thanks for the glimpse into your family photos and memories they've conjured. My mom is horrible about organizing photos, and she has some really old albums my grandma kept in the 30s and 40s too. I need to take my scanner when I visit some day and make copies of some of them.

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  10. The best thing about Photos is that they remain same while everything else fades with time...and this is the reason I like to take snaps! In this post you have nicely described all the photos. Good that you still have these photos with you.These are some of the most precious assets you can ever have!

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  11. I love reading photography blogs. My secret passion has always been creative photography. Lovely photos u have up there

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  12. Hi Sandy, as you ponder over pictures, take heart from the fact that a Vintage wine or a Vintage car are often quite young by most standards.

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  13. Photos can offer an array of purposes- memories of people, events, era, culture, places, experiences, creative and artistic outlets. Yes, bring those photos out of plastic tombs and let them breathe life and memories :)

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  14. Sandy, every time I open the "big bin of pictures" I lose hours of time but gain years of memories. I'm in the process of digitizing all the family photos I can get my hands on in order to save them for future generations.

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  15. I always smile when I read your posts. Yes the good old days, but if you look mat it, nothing about them and the people were probably not seeing the goodness anyway...interesting cliche. Ok so you are using semantics to deny being a photographer now? You are photographer and as long as I can see a door, a darn good one too.

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  16. Seeing your pictures I this post made remember all off the photos that I stole from my mother's closet crypt. Photos definitely add another dimension to your words and i like the unintentional blurred effect.

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    1. If you liked the blurred effect, you should see my other unintentional goof ups, very abstract photography - hey I could write a book on photography blunders!

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  17. Thanks Welli, that was very kind of you to give my photography skills a boost :)
    I am glad I can bring a smile to your face, makes it all worthwhile :)

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  18. What great memories of your parents. I took more pictures when I was able to print them on paper. It seems since the digital age I really don't take a many. There is something to be said going through old pictures than getting them off of your computer.

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  19. What a lovely idea to create a memory book of photos for your parents. I am inconsistent with regard to taking photos. Sometimes I'm snap happy and other days, I don't even want to take my camera out of the house. My phone is a dinosaur that doesn't take pictures. These days, it's so easy to capture memories. Think of how expensive it used to be when the only option was to buy film and have it developed.

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  20. When I open photo albums that my mother have kept safe from years , it takes me to sweet memories of my childhood. I feel every moment that I lived and it is always nice to see black and white pictures.
    You mother's photo is really nice , she truly have nice smile.
    I think taking pictures of pets and stuff is cute, I also think that I have taken more pictures of trees and building than myself. It was nice to see your childhood pictures. Thanks for sharing.

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