Photographic Memory
I read Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (one of the creators of Atlas Obscura) about training for a memory championship. He practiced daily for months, and he weaves the memory techniques he used into the story (as well as some background neurology information). After the memory championship, he ultimately gave up the daily practice though retained this new way of seeing the world as well as appreciating the pause memorization built into an experience.
He writes in the epilogue on page 268,
There is something to be said for the value of not merely passing through the world, but also making some effort to capture it—if only because in trying to capture it, one gets in the habit of noticing, and appreciating.
I highlighted the passage and immediately started wondering why memorization (in this way) is lauded while photography, which also is about not just passing through the world but attempting to catch it, is vilified.
Every so often, there is a spate of posts about how photography makes you miss out on moments. That by trying to document an experience visually, you stop paying attention to the moment itself. People complain about the people documenting everything with their camera or point out about how they had a superior experience because they didn’t photograph something.
I don’t know… gave me food for thought as I looked at the world through my camera. I love looking back at photos and returning, mentally, to a moment.
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Looking at photos later on is also an experience I enjoy. Perhaps there’s a balance. I think there’s a difference between “curating” for social media (spending a huge amount of time getting the perfect shot, editing, and in some cases, having a professional or monetary reward riding on the right post/photo) and taking photos to bring home to look at later and refresh fond memories.
I ran across an article about a small peony farm in Colorado that is having the flowers and farm actually harmed by people trying to get the perfect photo (and an article linked in that one about a sunflower farm is absolutely chilling) that I think sort of typifies the difference: https://slate.com/technology/2019/06/instagram-flowers-superbloom-jerks.html . But I don’t think there’s anything wrong whatsoever with having a nice outing to a place like that and snapping some (hopefully decent) shots of the day.
Maybe that’s why I’m such a terrible photographer – I don’t spend a lot of time capturing the image, because I’m really trying to capture the moment. I have a million pictures of my kid walking dogs on the trail at the shelter – I don’t remember many of the dogs, but I like documenting our walks in the woods, yelling at the dogs when they try to take off running, and talking about stuff.
I agree with Katherine that there is a balance. I like to take photos of experiences but not to the point where I am not also actively a part of things. I have a family member who is the opposite and it makes me sad for her. She is so fixated on capturing every moment to later scrapbook that she rarely enjoys, for example, playing with her grandkids. She has many photos but they are of events she witnessed, not something she can look back on and remember the feeling of the experiences.
When I started blogging, I started noticing things more, because I wanted to capture moments, experiences, or places in my mind to be able to write about them later. It’s the same with my travel photography. I photograph to remember the experience, to find things to notice about a place, and to really absorb the moment. I actually wrote about it here: https://aseparatelife.wordpress.com/2017/10/05/to-photograph-or-not-to-photograph/
I will say though that I noticed on my last trip that a lot of people pull out their phones and take photos of themselves in a place, rather than of the place. It’s all about them and how they look and how they can show it off to others, rather than about where they are. I saw people walking through beautiful places with their phones on a selfie-stick, filming, without actually stopping to look. So maybe the vilification (I think that’s the right word) of photography actually refers to these people, rather than those of us who really look and see. Perhaps it’s a matter of quality, not quantity.
And my moments last much longer with my photos than if I’d just experienced these moments without a camera. I have a photo blown up onto a large canvas of a sunrise in South Africa, which I see every day. I remember the wonder of the colours (I was actually doing this at lunchtime before I saw your post), the freezing cold, the still air, the anticipation of what we were going to see that day, and the people who were with me. Those memories might have vanished without that photo.
Looking back at old photos helps trigger memories for me so I do try to take photos when I can!
As a photographer/artist – I take photos of everything. I documented my miscarriages and how my relationship with my body changed. Hubby always tells people that photographing things as that is how I process the world around me. In many ways, at those times, it is capturing a moment so it can be revisited from a different vantage point/ point of growth.