Feeling nostalgia through the digital lens when we are already home.
Reflections on Cantarranasur’s “LA INFLACIÓN FOTOGRÁFICA”.
In a word, what Cantarransur touches on, the ever greater number of photographs taken, is nostalgia. Surely, taking many photos helps to prove memories and moments that we could otherwise have lost. We might, however, want to consider in a different light the other consequences of taking photos in such quantity. One study suggests that in taking photos we can loose track, in our minds, of what is actually happening or details of events. Another suggestion is that we can end up off-loading memories, in a manner of speaking: Since we know we are recording something via external apparatus (in this case a phone or dedicated camera) our brains do not focus on the event in the way that we might to better remember it.
Now let’s get confused and consider there is a downside to cellphones and digital cameras that make taking many, many photos very, very easy. It was not so long ago, albeit before our time, that there were no photos at all, printed or otherwise. If we extend the logic, we could say that we should take no photos and go back to drawing and painting or, easier still, just remembering what has occurred. Our memories are very imperfect and they change over time but perhaps this is not such a bad thing. If the blue then seems bluer now, if the tragedy then seems greater or the face of someone lost seems faded in our memories, perhaps there is a purpose for this: That our minds change the past may be good for us. Maybe imperfect memories help to keep us sane and looking forward.
A reduction of taking photos will not happen, unless perhaps there is the next world war and we are all sent back into a more primitive or less technological state. Assuming the scenario that we march forward, let’s embrace the shot, take many pictures everywhere, unburden our brains of having to recall so much. Perhaps this is a bad thing but that is not certain and it expresses our current reality, the overload of the way things are.
The point brought up by Cantarransur’s article is valid: “Fotografiar ...con más conciencia de lo que estamos viendo, de lo que queremos llevar para el futuro.” This, however, is not a global answer but rather a clue to a distinction that we should make: There is the act of taking photos and there is the act of taking photos with intent. I would stress the later and leave the former to blow with the whims of people how it may. Pining longingly toward a past when technology restricted us should not be the point, just as fighting the current trend of photographing everything. Technology advances and we remain as infants bickering over toys when we don’t even know if there will be a future. To sum up, my argument is that we should view things like this: Don’t trifle or bother with la inflación fotográfica, let it rise and fall but keep our memories and our minds clear to understand what we have created in the moment.
CJ FotoPlaf, Octubre, 2022