Your life is a series of interconnected stories. Photos record those stories. We need to relate the stories of our lives together to make sense. What better way to do that than to look back through your photos? Your life is a series of interconnected stories. Photos record those stories in the moment so we can relive them in the future.
Linking the important moments in our lives through our photos also creates a sense of continuity, a sense that life is not something that happens to us, but something that we actively shape. Achievements, milestones, and celebrations are occasions when photos are most often made. These are the stories that we record to remind ourselves in the future.
Looking back at our photos helps us identify threads of stories that we may not have noticed before. Every time we look back at photos we have new eyes of experiences that have accumulated since our last viewing.
Try to show someone a photo and not launch into a longer story that sets the scene, or tells what happened next. It’s impossible! So much so that we know if we are invited to see someone’s vacation pictures, we’re in for hours of stories about the trip, not just swiping through a few hundred pictures.
Psychologist Robert Akeret says, “The memories encapsulated within the borders of a single snapshot can set in motion does upon dozens of stories.”
A picture is worth a thousand words—this adage is so old that it was definitely not referring to photography originally. It refers to the idea that something complex to describe in writing or verbally can be communicated succinctly in an image. Think about IKEA assembly instructions as the perfect example.
But when we think about our photos, we could say “a picture holds a thousand stories.” Photos contain stories—they are mnemonic devices. They help us remember things, details, that would certainly otherwise be forgotten.
Photos are time-traveling tools. Making photos is forward-looking. We take a photo with the expectation that it will survive into the future. It is a time capsule. When we used to print our photos we would often write snippets of stories on the backs of them. The names of characters, dates, sometimes other clever details or jokes.
Psychologist Robert Akeret writes, “Many of these messages [words/captions on the back of pictures, notes, diaries] were committed to paper with at least some consciousness of addressing a future self. ‘Remember me as I am now!’ they seem to say.”
Making photos is forward-looking, but enjoying photos is backward looking. When we look at a photo we may instantly recall so many details about the moments surrounding the photo itself.
