Albert Einstein once remarked that, "A photograph never grows old. You and I change... but a photograph always remains the same." He was talking about wonderful old photographs taken of his mother that he still had and how they captured a single moment in time, a single memory, forever. She would always stay forever young in those photos, he would say, and smile.
We all have those old photos in our homes. I have many on my walls and even more in boxes to still sort. They are all my memories and some memories of ancestors that have left scratches of notes on the back to the "future" generations such as my own. Some of these messages still have meaning like the Uncles and Aunts and Grandparents we can trace, while other messages like (my favorite) "Bess's dairy cow", may have been just a little more obscured by the passing of time.
I often forget about how important photographs are to people as a frozen reference in time, until I meet or hear of someone who has lost their collection. People who have survived house fires. People who have been through terrible floods. People who have had to flee their homes from political and/or religious persecution. They have lost those memories to gaze back upon.
It is no wonder that when people go through traumatic events at home, the first thing they do when they recover themselves, is that they go looking for what they have left of their lives, usually starting with the family albums. It is quoted as one of the most commonly sort after items in debris after fires and earthquakes and tornadoes.
Sometimes I forget that as an Art Photographer, when I capture moments, they can pass very quickly by. It's kind of like the way you feel a different age than you biologically are in reality. That is the closest analogy I can come up with. I still have photos of "Freedom Fries" stands from Atlantic City and other odd now "aging" items from History like that. Precious moments all captured on raw pixelage, filed away in boxes.
I guess everyone forgets every now and then that time can pass you by. My kids that were arguing youngsters "just the other day", are now both looking at colleges and in 10th and 11th grade. I joined a group online with my old High School classmates and found a heap of old photos, and am thinking of putting those up for friends. That was a funny reminder of how much time had passed and how much wiser (hopefully) we all are now than at eighteen.
I sent a package off to a friend recently without a thought to contact her first. I hadn't spoken to her in a while and she is elderly. It was a lovely portrait I took of her last year and I wanted her to have a copy. When I got the package back from UPS, I panicked. Time had passed. It had been over a year since I had last spoken to her. Maybe she had fallen ill or moved in with family? Maybe the economy had forced her to move? Lots of thoughts filled my head with worry. I had taken a picture of her frozen in time, a moment captured forever... that she may never get to see.
Luckily, packages are just badly directed (well, I'm not sure if this one was good luck!). But it had made me think for a while that I had done a really bad thing by letting too much time pass. This time I had not.
Looking over my portfolio I realize that often I have been mostly timely with my photography. I took pictures of Coney Island when they were threatening to dismantle the older sections (and will still). I have photographed the Mid-West USA during the recession. I photographed NYC during the Bush era. I photographed the temporary 4th July war memorial on Santa Monica Beach for Iraq and Afghanistan. I was in recession Boston after the Red Sox won the World Series. Go to my website and have a look. They are all there. (www.sarafriedmanartphotography.com)
My Great-Grandmother used to have a lot of rules for her house. One of the most important was, "Never let the sun go down on an argument". No one was allowed to go to sleep until all arguments were settled. That way, if anything went wrong, at least you had made your peace with each other. Even as a little child this made sense to me. When I was little I thought most people died in their sleep... so this was REALLY important. Now that I am older, I realize just how wise she really was. It was all about not letting time pass by.
I have been lucky to be with the people I love at some key times in my life. I have lucky to have been at some key places at times in my life for my photography too. We, as humans, are not captured in time, like a photograph. We have to take our moments as they happen or make them happen.
The great philosopher Marcus Aurelius said that, "Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current... no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away."
So, take your photographs of family and events as they happen. They will never come back again to photograph the same way. Especially your children, parents and pets. Actually... whatever you want to remember just the way they are right now.
Get our your camera right now and shoot. Don't wait for it to be perfect. Just take the shot and smile. It's your memory.
