Juliette, Week 14 - Evidence of the Past
At the end of the game What Remains of Edith Finch, which I discussed in my last blog, the credits show all of the developers, play testers, and programmers’ pictures. But instead of the typical LinkedIn styled portraits or selfies from their rooms, they were just child pictures, the older-styled, polaroid-like ones with high saturation and a flash that sometimes made your eyes turn out a glowing red, animated to look like they were hung up on a bulletin board.
Looking at the pictures gave me a sense of nostalgia, and I realized that—despite how easy it is to take pictures on our phones—the personality and intimacy of the memories we cherish so dearly can become lost. As a result of the ease of modern technology, I personally feel that the perceived value of physical pictures that we can hold and see on a daily basis has especially deteriorated.
Ironically, my house is filled with pictures of family members, school picture days; so many that most of them are ones of complete strangers to me, with people I have never met or have forgotten from my childhood. Despite that, my room lacks any pictures of my family or friends—besides a few photocards of my favorite singer.
Instead, all the pictures I took in my childhood of my dog, my mom, and friends were tucked away and out of sight because I feared they would get dirty. I saw those pictures as just being kept for the sake of the memory. But aren’t pictures so much more than that?
Taking out my old pictures, keeping them safe, and being able to see the captured moments all make the memories feel more vivid. For me, having physical pictures to hold, kiss, treasure, and view feels so much more real than what we have become used to looking through our camera roll.
Even if the digital pictures can give us 4K quality with the best color definition. The feel of the film and seeing the pictures so readily on my desk or nightstand added more character to them instead of just the press of the button and scrolling through my camera roll. And instead of feeling like I was taking pictures just to take them and remember the moment, it felt like I was forming bits of memories and personal copies I could keep and share for a lifetime without the risk of them being lost to the digital void.
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| Some polaroids I took of my kittens :) |
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Hi Juliette! I think that you provided a really interesting perspective on the memories that we save through taking photographs and pictures. I never really thought about how the digital photos that we see in our phones and online convey a different meaning than physical copies such as those in books or in polaroids, but after reading your blog, I think I’m able to understand just how different the feelings conveyed through these two types of media are. I agree with you, seeing digital photos everyday kind of takes away the nostalgic feeling that we get from looking at photos because it’s so normalized. We probably see dozens of pictures online everyday and we’re able to access virtually any “memory” we want by looking at these photos. Physical copies of pictures, on the other hand, are able to convey a more intimate and personal feeling because they are less common. We often only keep physical copies of the photos that have special memories or feelings attached to them, making us naturally value these types of pictures more. I feel like this is also the reason why so many of us prefer grainy photos or ones that have that “digital camera vibe” to them, since they seem more nostalgic and personal compared to the usual pictures we see in our camera roll. I really liked the way you introduced this idea through connecting it to your last blog post, and I really enjoyed your pictures of your cats. Thanks for sharing Juliette!
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