"There is one thing a photograph must contain: the humanity of the moment." -Robert Frank
While I don't know much about Robert Frank other than that he was a photographer, on the basis of this quote alone, I think I would've liked him. When you think about it, that's what we're trying to capture when we're taking pictures: the humanity of the moment… unless you're trying to snap a quick pose for Instagram, but that's a topic for another post.
Really though, I find myself obsessing over photographs. I could be walking out the door to go run errands and notice anything from a sunset to a squirrel and my instinct is to grab my phone and capture the moment. Even photographs of the small and seemingly insignificant things can have a positive effect on you in the future. Having a bad day? Dive deep in your camera roll for the day you saw that cute dog sticking its head out the window of a car, and I'm sure it'll be hard not to smile, even just for a second.
The moments and big milestones of our lives are obviously times we want to capture and remember every second of. You probably know somebody who has gotten carrying on a conversation while snapping a million pictures down to a science- they're not looking at you, but they're listening… apparently. Who can blame them though? We only get one chance to experience some of the most amazing moments of our lives- the first day of school your freshman year, your college graduation, your wedding. These are all significant milestones we want to really experience, but also really look back and reflect upon.
Pictures let us do that.
Once you have the 900 pictures (at least), you get to almost relive that day or those hours of pure joy and you get to experience parts that you didn't get to in the first place. Our obsession with photographs stems from wanting to soak in the great moments of our lives and keep them close to us for as long as we can.
On that same note, we also have those photographs with connotations of the past and those relationships and moments we may not look back so fondly on. For me, I don't necessarily cherish or want to remember so deeply these moments, but I can't part with them. These images tell stories that we knew so dearly at one point in our lives, and the feeling of looking back on them and being in such a different place now is inexplicable, but we all know it.
Our brain makes associations between the immediate emotion we feel and the life event we relate it to, and it leaves an impact on our hearts and our brains that leaves us reeling.
Regardless of the reactions that photographs invoke from us, we take these photographs to capture the humanity of the moment. Our obsession with pictures stems from our obsession with humanity- with laughter and tears and the amazing times and the just okay times, with everyday joys we may otherwise look over.
