Before Digital, Before Social Media
We take more photos than every before, with estimates showing that humans will
take 2.1 trillion photos in 2025. That's
quite a jump from the estimated
85 billion photos in 2000, at film's zenith as the dominant photographic medium. [I wish I
had a better source for you, but the 1000memories blog that this, and other articles used as a source
is now defunct.]
Back during those film days, it was most common to get prints with your
developed roll of film. This was really the way most people, not just enthusiasts or pros, did it. We
were all flipping through 4x6 prints, in excited anticipation, to see if our photos actually turned
out well (and to jog our memories about what we actually photographed in the first place)! And if we
really liked a photo, we'd take back the negatives to get a bigger print.
What was done with those prints? A lot of people just stuffed them into a shoe
box, maybe digging them back out during fits of nostalgia. Others, though, took the time to place them
into photo albums, keeping the prints safe and easy to browse. It was typical for households to have
at least one, large "family photo album," which was the master tome compiling all the treasured
moments, captured in a slice of a second, so that important people, places, and happenings could be
evidenced by a glossy, little picture.
The act of taking, processing, reviewing, and enjoying the pictures was all
very physical. Each strip of film, each print, each page in an album, were all things you could hold.
Pictures were something you could pick up, turn over, write on, pass around, mail, stick on the wall,
burn, tear into little pieces, deface, and even just lose. These little prints, made for less than a
dollar, acted as a very tangible proxy for the person or event they portrayed. Often, these were the
greatest treasures a person owned.
Why Print Your Photos?
The words "photo" and "print" were at one time, nearly interchangeable. The print itself was the last step in the process of taking pictures, with the processed film just being a backup. Not printing a photo was like cooking a meal without ever eating it. Now, though, that step is often skipped. Most people share photos without ever making prints, instead posting them to social media. I would argue that this devalues a given photo in two ways:
- By lacking physicality, the viewer is less engaged, seeing the photo through a further level of abstraction by only seeing it on a small screen.
- By relegating the photo to being a drop in a stream of photos (and videos), the viewer does not give it full attention, if any, as they scroll on by it.
Printed (and if desired, framed) photos make for excellent decoration of a
space, obviously. However, I would take this idea further and suggest that decorating the walls of
your space, whether that be an apartment, a house, a trailer, a cubicle, is itself an act of resisting
the enforced austerity of contemporary interior design, both in places of business and at home. Bear
with me for a bit, as I rant about my tinfoil-hat views on modern design aesthetics.
In fashion and design, plainness now reigns supreme. Beige is the hottest
color of the decade, and words like "demure" and "neutral" are aspirational. I hypothesize that social
media, with its heavily regulated and severely curated venues, is at the heart of this trend. One
must present themselves in a performatively milquetoast manner, in order to fit into the formless
slurry of noncommittal "broad appeal." The highest success is achieved by sanding down any aspect
that is too challenging. This is nothing new at all, as most successful legacy media has typically
been little more than a shallow vessel which the viewer/listener/consumer could project themselves
into. It seems though, that quality has been heightened further than ever before, resulting in media
being so inoffensive, commoditized, and bland that even the colors of walls and clothing must be sure to
illicit as little reaction as possible. Music must be "chill," sweaters must be "neutral," and food must
"taste like itself" (and nothing more). We're living in a world designed to anesthetize us.
I'm not saying your walls should be some sort of punk-rock horror show shock-fest
(unless you like that), just that you should fill your space with images and memories that
are wholly personal. Don't let your walls be blank or only adorned in cheap, generic posters from
some home goods store. Litter them with personal details, images of fun group outings, reminders of
intimate reflections, and beaming faces of those you cherish.
Whether it's through an online photo printing service, a pharmacy down the street
that still has a photo counter, or (if you're lucky) a dedicated photography shop, get your
photos printed The good ones, the bad ones, the ones that have made the jump from the last 4 phones,
the off-kilter ones, the delicately edited ones, just bring them all into the real world!