I am truly amazed how much a two-thoudsand-year-old text by Seneca called “On the Shortness of Life”
One interesting point that Seneca makes is about people’s relationship with the past. Basically, the past, unlike the present and the future, is “beyond the reach of all human mishaps, and removed from the dominion of Fortune”. He writes that it is true luxury to be able to “roam” into the past days of one’s life and access all of them at will. I think that there is an interesting implication about photography in this concept.
The process of taking a photograph, as everything in our lives, happens in the present, but the resulting image is a record of the past. If the image is “doctored”, it has a potential to change the reality of the past event for the viewer. However, regardless of whether a photo is a faithful depiction of reality or not, for me personally, looking through my own photos that were taken several years ago is what makes the “roaming” into the past vivid and enjoyable. The photos are much more than memory aids. They reflect what interested and bothered me at the time they were taken, my skill level as a photographer, my level of patience and mental flexibility in going after the shot that I wanted to take.
The tough challenge, of course, is precisely what Seneca wrote about – not to lose all this insight into the past by being so “engrossed”, as he calls it, in trivial matters of the day, as not even being able to find time, mood or reason to slow down and look back. At this point, I have tens of thousands of photos that my wife and I took over the last ten years. I think that reviewingt them regularly, perhaps, just a few images at a time, would be at least as useful as shooting new projects.
