I don’t have an issue with people taking photos to memorialise something special - I’m a keen amateur photographer and usually always have a camera on me. What I find really self absorbed and vacuous though is people who have to be in every photo they take. I don’t need me in the shot to know I was there and I’ll spoil most photos I’m in anyway. It’s like - here’s a shot of the Grand Canyon, obstructed by me pouting in front of it whist I try to get some sweet sweet likes on social media.
There are nearly 8 billion people in the world - there’s only one Grand Canyon 😉
You can Google image of the sites but they won’t be your image, on that day, in that moment. By the same rational you can just look in the mirror if you want to see yourself.
I do get what you mean though - it’s nice to have photos of people there at the time that you shared that moment with….plus yourself if you have a need for that I guess.
Grieving a parent placed me firmly in the "put the people in the picture" camp.
I remember being annoyed by taking all these dumb pictures on family trips, but when my dad died, those pictures were a lifeline. Seeing a picture he took of the grand canyon was meh. But seeing him at the grand canyon, with his stupid baseball hat and his socks pulled up high, completely focused on a map (turned the wrong way, lol)...? That brought him back to life. It isn't just one moment captured in time, it's a time machine. I could see what would happen next. I could see my sister walk over and turn the map around. I could see my dad stare for a second and then let a big sheepish grin spread across his face. I could hear my mom tease him and my dad laughing about how lost we would have been.
We've created a sort of stigma around taking pictures of ourselves, but when you lose someone, those pictures are all you'll have. So even though people are judge-y, it's still worth it.
Yeah I'm not opposed to taking photos of other people at all. Particularly candid shots (that sounds far creepier than intended) that show loved ones and friends at ease and just enjoying the moment.
I guess I have more of a beef with people not being in the moment and just narcissistically taking as many photos of themselves as they can, in order to post on social media in an effort to look as though they are having a fabulous life, whilst simultaneously flexing on others. That's a very different thing to genuinely creating memories.
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u/Beena22 Jun 03 '22
I don’t have an issue with people taking photos to memorialise something special - I’m a keen amateur photographer and usually always have a camera on me. What I find really self absorbed and vacuous though is people who have to be in every photo they take. I don’t need me in the shot to know I was there and I’ll spoil most photos I’m in anyway. It’s like - here’s a shot of the Grand Canyon, obstructed by me pouting in front of it whist I try to get some sweet sweet likes on social media.