Photography on Paper
Here I am reflecting on some things and something that I often think about came to mind, photography on paper. It's been a while since I printed my photos, not that long ago, but revisiting my files I realized that many photos that I like I hardly ever see anymore, why don't I see these photos anymore?
I believe that we no longer give much value to photographs on paper. In the modern world, digital photography dominates, the vast majority of things are done on the internet and here digital photography shines. In your phone's gallery, on an external hard drive, on your computer or in a social network feed, your photos get lost among so many other things. In these places, and probably for a long time, you no longer even remember that those photos exist.
Can you remember the last digital photo you saw? Don't get me wrong, digital photos have their value too. I really like the convenience of storing my photos on an external hard drive, in the cloud or somewhere else where we can store our photos digitally. I like that we have thousands of photos stored on a small device that doesn't take up much space in our homes. Welcome to the convenience of the modern world!
Maybe it's nostalgia, but I really like looking at photos on paper. I like it when I go to someone's house and they have photo albums full of stories and memories. Then when you start leafing through the albums and you identify with some of those memories, you come up with stories about what happened back then. Somehow you can experience a little of that, even if you didn't experience it. It's like when we're reading a book and we experience what we're reading.
I have many photos from when I was a child, my family has many photo albums and the more years pass, the more valuable these photos become to me. When I look at these photo albums, they help me remember moments that I lived, memories that many times I could no longer remember. The other day I saw a photo with my friends, a photo that was taken a few years ago. I don't see these friends anymore, life has taken care of putting each of them on different paths. One of them passed away a few years ago, but through that photo and the memories I have of him, he will never be forgotten and that moment recorded connected us for the rest of our lives.
Whenever I work with people, I talk about photography on paper. I encourage people to print their photographs, the photos they like the most, separate them and make an album with them. But you can also print the photos you like and put them in a picture frame, make a frame with your photo and put it on the wall. I print some of the photos I take. I arrived here in Richmond, Virginia, a few months ago. The winter here punished me a bit and I haven't gone out yet to look for stores that print photos. There was a store in Orlando, Florida that I really liked. I always got my prints there, RT Art Fine Art Printing. If you live in Orlando, I highly recommend this store.
As I was saying, I always print my photos and I would carry some of these photos around in my backpack. Whenever I met some of the people I photographed, I would give them one of these photos. This is something simple, but I saw how happy people were when I told them I had a simple gift for them and I would give them a photo of them. And some time later, when those people met me again, they would tell me that they had put the photo in a photo frame. I was very happy to hear that. With this blog, I just want to share with you my thoughts on this topic. I had a lot more to write, but I also want this blog to be as concise and direct as possible. I hope that my thoughts have touched you to the point that you will also think about this and that from today on you will consider printing your photos and valuing your memories more.
