The mother sits on the other side of the table eating a lunch sandwich, watching the two "boys" across the table. She is squinting a bit because of the sharp afternoon sun seeking its way through the kitchen window. The new fallen snow makes the sun shine even brighter than normal. She listens to their conversation:
"Well, we need to get that piece away from the side so we can reach down with the new pin, but to get that piece away we need a special tool. This one is not big enough...
"No, its to short."
" Yeah, it is too short... Hmmm... Maybe if we try and do this..."
"What Papa?"
"Well, if I get this screwdriver in here and push the piece away and you reach down with the pliers... and then you push..."
"Yea, I'm on it. Tell me when."
The two "boys" are super concentrated and driven to solve the problem now. The woman sees a memory being produced and reaches for her camera. These pictures will be some of those special ones. Not because of their beauty, composition or light but because of the moment that was captured. Every time she looks at these pictures she will re-live that moment with all of her senses remembering the light, the smell, the sound, the surrounding and most of all the feeling. And she hopes that one day a grown up boy will look at these pictures and say:
"Mama! I remember this! It is me and Papa!"
And the grown up boy will re-live that special moment he had with his Papa, doing mechanics in the kitchen that day when the big snow fell and he was only 13. It's a nice thought.
Kärlek
Annette
Annette
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I don't see memories in this way. You don't make them. I think of memories simply, as things that happen that then I might recall at some point, or I might not. I don't 'make' them. I have some 'snapshots' which come into my head about certain things but have little in the way of photos and no video footage. Life is happening right now, not the past and not the future. That is the part I want to be fully present in. The memories most important to me cannot be reproduced, because they are in my heart and senses.
ReplyDeleteI see many people putting the camera between reality and themselves. The beautiful robin in the garden that gets captured on film but you actually missed seeing at all in real life, because you were messing about with the camera, and then it flew off before you actually saw it at all through your own eyes. Yet the photo says 'look what I saw today'. You possibly didn't see it at all.
Well, I guess we are all different in how we view the world. I've always viewed the world and my life in stills from a very early age, that is just who I am. I use to draw pictures, make comic strips and tell stories with illustrations as a child and later photography became my way of capturing the moments of my life. Just like my journal notes and poems I scribbled down in my diaries daily...
DeleteI do somehow agree with today's obsession of capturing everything on tape and on pictures, there has to be a balance. I wouldn't let the camera lens take away from the beauty of living in the present time, but if I can collect a moment to be preserved for future joy, for future generations to enjoy, then I will. I see it as a gift to have these moments carefully stored in stills to look back upon when flicking through old photo albums. They really open up the door to memory lane...
Despite drawing, painting and making things which I too have always done, I am often just not a visual person. I would never be a hyper realistic artist for instance because I just can't/don't want to look that deeply.
DeleteBut I do have memories and they are important, they are the ones that live in my soul and are created by my heart not me. They are the feelings, the touch and the emotions of things, not the visuals. For instance my dearly loved cat is remembered most days for how it felt to stroke his soft fur, hear his purrs or bury my face into his neck and feel his warmth and to remember how much I loved him. Particular scenes are not important, just capturing the essence of the person or place. This is something that just happens and which having pictures of them doesn't add to much. I don't make or create memories in any way, they are just there.
Besides pictures tell other people things that are not true. I have picture of me smiling in amongst flowers. To others a happy picture of a carefree child. Actually I had just been crying and was feeling very sad. Future viewers of that picture will just see a pretty picture, so it doesn't capture my reality at all for others. Only I know that. You are right though, we are all different.
Anonymous, i so not agree with that, how i wish there were more pictures taken when I was a kid!
ReplyDeleteTo be able to see and relieve the moment would mean the world to me, I’ll try to take pictures all the time, because I’ll know that my kids will love to have them for their kids to see in the future. ��
So true Anna, I agree.
DeleteStora kramar och God Jul till er alla down under. Hoppas ni får en härlig julhelg med massor av god mat, kramar och skratt. :)
Wonderful memories captured between your son and his dad! I think that cameras are a perfect way of capturing magical moments. Like you, I love to take pictures of natural everyday happenings and especially when our subjects, when they are people, are not just sitting there with their 'cheese' smiles waiting to go back to being natural again!!
ReplyDeleteit looks like a beautiful moment, caught just at the right time (for you) memories can be collected anyway an individual can, plus you were watching them for a good while before snapping the photo, so nothing lost there;
ReplyDeletehave a great xmas & new year
thanx for sharing
Ahhhh what lovely memories! x
ReplyDeleteBeautiful. And beautiful words too. I love those photos most of all as well, those seemingly ordinary moments when a memory is made. It's so lovely to look back at them together, so often it helps us remember things that might otherwise be lost. CJ xx
ReplyDelete