The cult of photography

Originally posted by FMF
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 ...[text shortened]... orto sunset - that I took snaps of instead and that I can look at till this day all too easily.

That's how I see it. Memory is the best camera, with the advantage that the recorded images shift subtly with time. But I take snapshots to send to other people; it makes them happy.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
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?

You're too young, bro. One day you will realize that your head is overloaded with information and feelings are mixed up when trying to remember. That's when you browse through the pics and have a smile.

Moreover, not everybody is lucky enough to travel the world, and taking photos for them, particularly if they are your loved ones, is a way of helping them see what they couldn't. Nothing made me happier than showing my travel pics to grandma, may she rest in peace, and see her expressions of amazement and joy.

You could do worse with your time than read Susan Sontag's On Photography, one of my favourite books on the subject, or Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida, also a great read.

Neither of them are as dense as some of their other works.