Cameras and attitudes towards photography today

These days, I feel a bit overwhelmed by photos. It sounds a little silly, but it’s true.

Back in the day, taking a photo was a whole event; later, it became a way to capture an important moment. But what does photography mean today?

Because everyone has a device in their pocket that can capture a moment in an instant, it doesn’t feel as magical anymore. Everything can come out blurry, or be out of focus; you can take several photos in a row. And then, as I’ve asked people, often people don’t even look at those photos afterward—they forget about them and never look back.It’s as though the ease and accessibility of photography breed a certain disregard for it; after all, if there are so many of them and they’re so easy to take, why bother? 

I worry that my generation is the last one that has ever seen photo albums. My parents had one—family gatherings, for example, childhood photos, trips. All of this has value; you can flip through it, run your finger over the surface. It’s such a special feeling. A sense of value, a sense of weight. There’s a little magic to it—even the internet or the power goes out, you can still look at those faces, even with red pupils, and smile; you can hang them on the wall and put them in a frame. When was the last time you put a photo in a frame? I haven’t either.

I want to start feeling the value and weight of a photograph. I want to buy a camera, but one that uses film. Yes, it will be difficult, but there’s a photo lab in our town, and I want to keep my own photo album. What do you think about that?