Do any of you go back and look at your old photographs?
I rarely do (something about the passage of time gets me down).
No, I make images for others.
The act of photographing, however… I’m pretty sure I do that for myself.
—Peter.
Do any of you go back and look at your old photographs?
I rarely do (something about the passage of time gets me down).
No, I make images for others.
The act of photographing, however… I’m pretty sure I do that for myself.
—Peter.
Prosophos 
Seconded. I won my first camera as a paperboy in 1961. I have been smitten since.
A paperboy, eh? Something about knowing that about your past makes me like you more Cory…
Peter
I look back sometimes, usually makes me down too. Lately, I have been making more photographs with film of my wife and more importantly my aging mother. I want something more tangible to remember her with than just a digital file. I regret never photographing my father more, however I do have a few old family photos of us to remember. Anyways, enjoy the blog, thanks for sharing your work with all of us and thank you for turning me on to the RZ67…I think I bonded with the rig and I’m already creating some magic with it.
JR, I’m glad that you too have discovered the RZ67. Send me some images if you are inclined.
Bitter-sweet? Absolutely. I almost never go back to look….it is too heartbreaking.
There is a bias in my images as most were made during happy, strong, and life-affirming moments. Of course, I want all of that back…including the innocence I imagine everyone felt (including me) not knowing what might be coming. Perhaps if the photos were better balanced to also represent difficult passages and struggles (which I don’t have the heart or strength to “document”), I would feel differently. If I did, perhaps I would be pictorially-reminded that the passage of time can also bring relief to suffering, a resolution to difficulties, and new found joys and justice. I could then compare the better parts of now to the less good parts of then. But for this I have to rely on philosophy or reason or memory or, gratefully, the work of photojournalists.
Every shutter click is bitter-sweet, actually. I try to stop time……but it hasn’t been successful (maybe I am using the wrong cameras?) In fact, each shutter click feels like it results in documentation of what will be felt as a future loss. It sometimes feels cruel to even do it.
Hey…..you asked. Now I feel like I am sitting on the Group W bench and everyone is moving away…..
Very well said, Karen. How strongly we evidently feel about the mere subject of looking back at old pictures is a testament to the power of photographs. It is part of why I’m in love with photography.
I’m glad you didn’t hold back Karen.
I do, quite regularly.
I feel lucky to be able to say it genuinely makes me happy. I live halfway around the world from my family and many of my oldest friends; seeing photos of them and the things we’ve done together makes me smile and realise how lucky I am to have them in my life, to have had those experiences. It makes me look forward as much as reminisce about old times, and drives me to strive to ensure that there many more such memorable moments.
One of my oldest friends who I travelled Australia with after college visits Canada this Summer; it’s wonderful to be able to look forward to another road trip in a different corner of the world some fifteen years on from our first. I’m already trying to picture the photo album that has yet to be made, wondering what we’ll see and experience and talk about in years to come.
Will we still be doing it at 80? I hope so!
Looking back is bitter-sweet without doubt, but I find it on the whole to be life-affirming and motivating.
I’m in your camp James! Photo’s are generally of someone we admire, liked, enjoyed company with, a place we have visited or a moment or occasion to remember. So I see them as just that and look forward to the future.
I’m sincerely happy that you, James and Andrew, enjoy viewing old images. I wish I felt the same way.
I am also happy that others feel differently than I do. I truly wish that I felt differently than I do and have. I am envious of those who have found what I have not yet been able to in this regard. I will keep looking for joy and sweetness when looking at old photographs. Perhaps the search is as important as anything. Hearing the comments of others who have done so inspires me and I thank you for your wisdom and experience.