You Never Know When You’ll Want to Show Someone Else
Post first published for Nomadic’s Blog in 2014, updated for Medium
During the past few months, I’ve been utilizing multiple apps for iPhone photography. I take my photos through the built in camera app, and then I use VSCO Cam and Snapspeed (iOs or Android) to retouch. Both programs are effective and user-friendly.
It goes without saying that as smart phone camera technology becomes better, our ability to document the world around us becomes easier. Ferris Bueller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” That was in 1986. Think about how much faster life moves now. We take photos at events with our friends and family almost every day. We chase our kids or our pets in the backyard and we try to catch an amazing sunset. These moments are fleeting. These moments are here and gone in an instant and we do our best to capture as much as we can with what we have.
On the flip side, I started thinking about the environments around me that change the least; my parent’s home, the street I grew up on and my grandparent’s house to name a few. These are the places I’ve walked through countless times. They are ingrained in my memories. These places have smells and sounds that I can never replicate, that I can never tell my children about in full detail. These places shaped the person I am today. Sadly, I don’t have a single picture of any of them. All of this technology, all of this time to just take out my phone and snap away and there’s nothing. Am I going to remember all of it, forever? Probably not.
For almost 60 years, my grandfather has lived in the same home. This is the home my mother grew up in and, over time, it hasn’t really changed all that much. As of this post, I’m 34 years old. In my grandfather’s house I’ve laughed at jokes, cried after funerals, celebrated holidays and birthdays, learned to play cards, slept in the same bed my mother did, cleaned out the garage, constructed soap box racers and cut down trees; and did all of that at least 5 times over. At some point, this house will be owned by someone else and likely demolished to build something bigger and more modern. All of those memories in their physical sense will be gone and I have nothing to show of it. On a recent trip back East to visit my family in New Jersey, I decided to do something about it. I spent about 45 minutes going around the house, snapping away photos of the pieces of his home that I think about when someone says, “Poppa’s house”.
Our memories live as snapshots in our mind and these photos below are exactly how I’ll remember this home for the rest of my life. My children will never know it like I do, but hopefully these photos will serve as a way for me to recall as much detail as I can years from now.
Think about those places around you that have shaped who you are, the places you walk through and the details of those places that you never stop to take notice. Think about how these places have impacted you, your family or your work. It may mean nothing to anyone else but you; but take that smart phone out of our pocket and go take pictures of it.
(Updated post is below the photos)
Update, June 2016:
Poppa passed away in March of this year, just 7 days before his 88th birthday. I can’t express how grateful I am to have the legacy of these images. The post above holds true, as this home, with it’s empty walls and empty shelves, has been sold to a builder who is likely going to break it all down.
My aunt took the photos after cleaning out Poppa’s house:
Joe Posnanski said in his recent post, “Hamilton”, when thinking about what memories his daughter, Elizabeth, will remember from her childhood:
One of the enduring curiosities of parenthood is that you have no idea what moments will endure.
For me, this house will forever endure in my memories but more so with these photos. I ask you: what else speaks to a memory better than an image to pair it with?
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Check out all my writing at my personal: https://medium.com/scott-berchman
