On Photos and the Soul

About a month ago my girlfriend and I went to Washington, DC for a wedding. While there we checked out some of the usual sights, actually only one sight but it was a good one. The Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian. As I get older my appreciation for aviation increases...and I've gotten to the point where I can actually name some planes when I see them. The first time I visited I went driven to see all the exhibits regarding space, this time I spent a lot more time just checking out the airplanes. I was a good time and since the museum is free, I highly recommend it if you get the chance to visit our fair Capitol.

As luck would have it, I did not have a camera the first time I went to DC. My companion brought her camera so I have some pictures...but they don't have the same impact when I look at them. There is something very powerful that happens when you view a photo and you realize that it was you, in that place, framing the picture and taking the shot. It is a connection through time, and depending on the memory, it can be a very enjoyable experience.

For the last two days I have been spending a fair amount of time doing something I've never done before. I spent some time and gathered all the photos that I have in hopes of organizing them and placing them in albums. There is a huge gap in my picture record. I'd say there is about a ten year period where I have no photo, audio or video from my life. This is somewhat ironic and sad as I went to college for video and radio. That doesn't mean that there isn't something out there somewhere, it's just that in my many many moves over the years, my video productions, my radio spots, my films, everything has drifted further away from me. Without realizing it, by allowing these parts of me to disappear, I have slowly dissolved my sense of self.

When you don't have anything to look back on, you do not have a sense of your journey through life. Just looking at a picture from high school, or better yet, from an even younger age reminds you of how far you have come. It validates you, makes you feel more a part of life. I had been missing that for a long time, that sense that I'm going somewhere.

To wrap up this winding post, I will leave my readers with this: Take photos, take videos, make films, live your life and take the occasional odd thing, a movie ticket from your first date or a bar napkin from a really great night out with your friends or something else equally pedestrian. You will be glad that you did.

-BFS