12 Aug 09
Originally posted by KazetNagorraPeople like to keep a visual record of their lives -- especially involving family and close friends.
I've always wondered: why do so many people find it necessary to take pictures of everything they see and show them to their friends? Pictures of holidays, the children, daytrips, and other uninteresting things. What is the point?
12 Aug 09
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Originally posted by KazetNagorraI stopped taking holiday snaps of scenery in Porto, Portugal, at sunset on a day in April 1988.
I've always wondered: why do so many people find it necessary to take pictures of everything they see and show them to their friends? Pictures of holidays, the children, daytrips, and other uninteresting things. What is the point?
In the subsequent years I have put on weight, suffered occasional back trouble, started to go a little grey, and now sometimes forget where I have left my glasses down.
Keep taking those holiday snaps, people. Wondering what the point of it is, is simply not worth it.
12 Aug 09
Originally posted by KazetNagorraWhy not? Perhaps it gives them pleasure, if only the pleasure of fulfilling a social ritual. Otherwise they might just sit and stare at their shoes ... wondering what the point of wearing shoes is ...
Yes, but why?
I assume you distinguish between 'meaningless' and 'meaningful' photography.
12 Aug 09
Originally posted by KazetNagorraMaybe they are important, therefore what they see and do is important and therefore others must find it important too.
I've always wondered: why do so many people find it necessary to take pictures of everything they see and show them to their friends? Pictures of holidays, the children, daytrips, and other uninteresting things. What is the point?
13 Aug 09
1 edit
Originally posted by KazetNagorraCome on...are you serious?
I've always wondered: why do so many people find it necessary to take pictures of everything they see and show them to their friends? Pictures of holidays, the children, daytrips, and other uninteresting things. What is the point?
It's so that you don't have to remember every single thing in your brain. pictures are like portable hard drives. You don't want to fill up your hard drive (brain) with just images/memories of a trip when you need it to do your job and remember what you need to buy at the grocery store.
Pictures serve as memory storage devices. Isn't that obvious?
13 Aug 09
Originally posted by uzlessI've been to about 20 countries and have not taken any pictures. I don't regret it an iota, why do you need pictures to remember? I'll remember the important things.
Come on...are you serious?
It's so that you don't have to remember every single thing in your brain. pictures are like portable hard drives. You don't want to fill up your hard drive (brain) with just images/memories of a trip when you need it to do your job and remember what you need to buy at the grocery store.
Pictures serve as memory storage devices. Isn't that obvious?
14 Aug 09
Originally posted by KazetNagorralol. Reminds me of the film "Mystery Train":
I've been to about 20 countries and have not taken any pictures. I don't regret it an iota, why do you need pictures to remember? I'll remember the important things.
Mitzuko: Jun, why do you only take pictures of the rooms we stay in and never what we see outside while we travel?
Jun: Those other things are in my memory. The hotel rooms and the airports are the things I'll forget.
14 Aug 09
Originally posted by KazetNagorraSome people are sentimental and some aren't. I enjoy looking back on things past. I don't think many people like looking at other peoples photos of their lives. I am wierd in that I love looking at others photo albums and have them explain the pics.
I've always wondered: why do so many people find it necessary to take pictures of everything they see and show them to their friends? Pictures of holidays, the children, daytrips, and other uninteresting things. What is the point?
14 Aug 09
I stopped taking holiday snaps of scenery in Porto, Portugal, at sunset on a day in April 1988. There was a wonderful papaya coloured sunset draping itself over a shimmering gorge carpeted in motley houses of cream and beige. Or something like that. I kind of missed it because I had some problem with the lens on my camera. I missed it. I neither watched the sun go down and all the colours shift and swirl. Nor did I get the picture. I decided there and then. No more scenic pictures. If I wanted to see a beautiful thing then I would simply look at it. If I wanted to see it again, then I would revisit it. I have a more interesting memories of the things I've seen since I stopped taking snaps, and about which I have to exercise my memory, than I do of things - before that Porto sunset - that I took snaps of instead and that I can look at till this day all too easily.