I was sitting on the couch this afternoon idly staring off into space considering something of little importance, as I cannot recall now. In short it was a silent, useless moment of bliss. Awakened suddenly from my daydream I heard raucous laughter coming from my flatmate who was seated at his computer. I enquired as to what was causing him such amusement and he said he was going through old photos, trying to cull some and save the good ones. An album of photos from an overseas trip had reminded him of some hilarious memories and this has lightened his day to no end.
This got me thinking.
I have a camera, which is not that old, in perfect working order…well, apart from the battery life of 3 minutes, which sits in my cupboard drawer and never gets used. I need to get that camera out of the cupboard, take out the battery, buy a new one and then get to the root of this issue! I have moved to one of the most beautiful places in Australia and so far have a few photos of me winning a 6 pack at the local pub raffle and very little else. Documenting my life has never been done so poorly.
I have a digital video camera, which has years worth of videos that currently reside solely on the camera’s hard-drive so if I lost the camera or it died so would years of memories. I am now downloading these 345 videos onto my computer as we speak.
Viewing a selection of these videos has evoked a combination of emotional responses.
The first is happiness that I have a permanent reminder of my overseas holidays, times with loved ones and friends; that when my mind grows weak and vague I will still have these video memories to fall back on.
The second is a mixture of sadness and loss, reminders of happier times with those now permanently departed or serving a new role in my life; memories that are very important and I never want to forget but am not ready to revisit at this time.
Lastly it has shown me that I am not an accomplished videographer – the clips are of varying quality from OK to downright shoddy. I take much better photos than videos.
Is it bad to rely on photographs and video to recall the moments that make up a life? Is it better to document these moments or to let memories reside in the mind alone? My sister has seen video of her birthdays and shudders at what she sees – does this mean that her memories should live in her minds bubble or is the truth a good leveller sometimes – we can only remember correctly if the evidence is there in stark reality on a screen.
I think it is important to have a mixture of both – it is fun to show people how much hair they had, what abhorrent fashions they sported, who they dated, where they visited – documenting the lives of others and yourself has been happening since the dawn of man. Who am I to rock the boat?
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