The Importance of Photographs

[John Kasaian]

If you know anyone suffering Alzheimer's.
What seems to be the best therapy is sitting along side them while going through family photo albums, letting him identify the who's and where's.

[jnantz]

hi john
i think looking at photographs presented as you described
can be kind of fun. it makes me think of when i was in high school
and read Catch 22 both for the jumble of it all and because
sometimes it becomes a yosarian experience and a yosarian-experience

[Salmo22]

My father was a long-time professional photographer and was always carrying a camera. When he passed away last August, I inherited his negatives, slides, and some 16mm movies. Nearly 50,000 negatives alone! They are a treasure to me, both personally and as a historic record. Besides the vast collection of family related negatives, I also have his commercial negatives from 40 years of professional work and 18 years as a photographer in the Air Force. I have countless aerials (4x5 & 6x6) of the metro Phoenix area and other parts of Arizona that have changed forever. To me these negatives/slides serve as a priceless window into my past and the history of this region. As yes, I can remember the many family gatherings where Dad would narrate his latest exploits with 6x6 slides using his Hasselblad and/or Rollei projectors

[John Kasaian]

hi john
i think looking at photographs presented as you described
can be kind of fun. it makes me think of when i was in high school
and read Catch 22 both for the jumble of it all and because
sometimes it becomes a yosarian experience and a yosarian-experience

Interesting! I had the pleasure of meeting Joseph Heller at CSUF back in '79 or '80 ---a real gentleman. I hope he gets a cut of the yosarian action ; )

[John Kasaian]

A morbid departure from the subject---I was speaking with an undertaker the other day and he mentioned many 80+ year old clients being very adamant about putting family photographs inside the coffins of deceased family members.
Why is that?

I read of one precedent back during the gold rush when pictures were included in coffins as a means of identification (?) but those images were on metal, which would I expect remain corrupted longer than paper.

I've seen photographic images on tiles inset on tombstones.

But photos inside a coffin?
Do they include a flashlight as well?

[r_a_feldman]

Sally Mann, in her memoir Hold Still, makes interesting observations that photographs falsify and replace memories. In general terms, she feels that the more photographs she has of someone, the less she really remembers the person – she remembers the photographs and what they show, but not really the person.

Any thoughts on this?

[John Kasaian]

Sally Mann, in her memoir Hold Still, makes interesting observations that photographs falsify and replace memories. In general terms, she feels that the more photographs she has of someone, the less she really remembers the person – she remembers the photographs and what they show, but not really the person.

Any thoughts on this?

I think there is a difference between formal portraits and snapshots, the formal generally trying to give an impression of some desired quality while snaps capture more of the "moment" without any pretension being contemplated.

Of course this doesn't apply to selfies

Re: Sally Mann, in order to "falsify and replace memories" one must have the memories to falsify and replace to begin with.

[Alan Klein]

Sally Mann, in her memoir Hold Still, makes interesting observations that photographs falsify and replace memories. In general terms, she feels that the more photographs she has of someone, the less she really remembers the person – she remembers the photographs and what they show, but not really the person.

Any thoughts on this?

When you look at a photo of someone you love, you fall in love all over again.

[mihag]

When you look at a photo of someone you love, you fall in love all over again.

So true!

[Alan Gales]

I've sat through some mighty awful slide shows. You know the ones where people show every slide from their vacation.

Yeah, the notorious "Here is a picture of my thumb. I accidentally got it in front of the lens when taking the picture".