I really love the concept of the #ThrowbackThursday posts on social media. The emphasis of reflecting on memories of years past thrills me. That first bicycle, that first school age birthday party. I imagine thousands of people eagerly looking through old photo albums and selecting favorite memories to upload and share. A physical representation of a day when things were simpler, the air was a little sweeter and we all were a little more innocent.
For my own throw back Thursdays I even have a file of photos I took. Some were taken when I was “only knee high to a grasshopper”, others as I started to understand the need for a backdrop (at the age of 7 I would unzip my brown sleeping bag to be a makeshift backdrop), early forays into elements of posing, then the first times using a SLR 35mm on my own. My friends and family were perpetual guinea pigs (even if it was occasionally without warning). Technically these photos are not good by any measure.
Some of my favorite “throwbacks” are of people who are no longer with us. This is how I will always remember them. My stoic Grandpa standing in the Oklahoma heat.
My Uncle Bud who always reminded me of Bing Crosby (in spite of the cowboy hat he always wore).
As a child photographer it is always easy to pick out the photos I took even in my Grandma’s massive photo archive. The angle of the image always gives me away. Sometimes I still try to replicate this in my work today; with photos of children I always work to replicate the photo I took of my cousin Brandon when I was 10 and he was 5. Brandon is now in his 30’s but this is what my mind sees when I hear his name.
These photos only get more precious over time. Recently recently one of my hard drives failed. Fortunately I have other back ups. But this was a harsh reminder that digital media will fail. Floppy disks gave way to zip disk. CD’s became USB drives.Technology improves (otherwise we would all still be using bag phones). Prints won’t. I can walk into my mother’s dining room and look at the wall to see photos of my ancestors. I do not need a computer or any other thing to aid me.
