We live in a digital world. Everything exists on our computers and our phones, there seems to be nothing that we have physically anymore. No one jots down quick notes on a sticky paper anymore, we open up the “Notes” app in our phone and type it instead. It’s obviously more convinent than sticky notes, of course, the note can’t be lost in your phone but it can be lost on a random piece of paper.
We go to family gatherings, and we hang out with friends and all our photos are taken on our phone. No one uses those black and yellow blocks we call disposable cameras anymore. But don’t we love to go through the big boxes of photos our parents have of our childhood? Don’t we like having and holding those photos in our hands?
With the return of the polaroid I realized how physical photos are much more mermorable, more cherished. There is something old fashioned, if you will, about physical pictures. I take pictures with my phone and I post them on Instagram, of course. But I do take pictures with my polaroid and put them in an album. I have filled up 4 mini albums that hold about 80 photos, and I recently purchased a larger one that holds 120.
There is a certainty to holding your pictures, to having them in an album sitting on your shelf, or in a box. You know they are there, they won’t randomly disappear. Yes, the arguement can be made that we have all these clouds and who knows what else that allows us to safely store our photos, and access them on different devices. But can we ever completely trust our technology to keep the things dearest to us safe?
I’ve been interested in purchasing one of those cool mini printers that can print photos from your phone, then I can have any photos of mine I want in my hand because physical photos are are the best. Although they can’t capture a subject the way a digital, or phone camera can.