[Des]

?I?ve taken a million pictures ? 50 were good?: photographer Ferdinando Scianna | Photography | The Guardian

“I do not think I can change the world with my photographs, but I do believe that a bad picture can make it worse,” he says. “And the point is that we have too many images. If you eat caviar every day, eventually you will want pasta e fagioli.” He thinks that photography went into an irreparable crisis a couple of decades ago, when we stopped building family photo albums. “Today we all take photos with our phones, but they are background images. Even a selfie is not a self-portrait but a kind of neurosis about a moment of existence that must immediately supplant another, and so on. And we all know what happens when something loses the identity that has determined its success and cultural function. It dies.”

[Mooncatt]

And here I thought the thread title was about an outing at a major sporting event.

[carlb]

I agree with him.

[ChristianRock]

And kids should get off his lawn...

[StiffLegged]

What is it that was so wonderful about family albums? Most are of little real interest to the outsider - umpteen pictures of strangers on the beach at Margate, smashed out their skulls New Year 1957 or 30 seconds before puking all down that lovely cardigan Grandma crocheted for the little mite. I feel more for the closing quote in that piece: “ But if you really want to know the truth, then yes, taking pictures has given me a lot of happiness.”

[akptc]

There can only be one first kiss...

[Dartmoor Dave]

I read the article and I agree with him. There are less than a hundred surviving photos of my entire childhood, and every one of them is a treasure to me with clear and vivid memories attached to it. But fifty years from now, will those who are kids today be able to even look at any of the thousands of jpegs of their own childhoods that will have been posted online and then forgotten about?

I loved his risotto theory of cultural value too.

[jersey]

Yeah, family albums are pretty nice. I have them dating back from beginnings of photography in Poland, so second half of XIX century. I am the last of my family and the history will die with me as I have no kids. But I still enjoy browsing through my childhood, or watch how my father and uncles were playing in dirt. How my great grandmother was posing in some stuffy dress and how my great grandfather was guarding funeral of marshall Pilsudski with Goering marching past him.


I wonder if kids of today will have something more then error 401 when they try to access some long dead online gallery.

[cxdoo]

I started making family albums some time ago and that seemingly irrelevant decision brought many insights. Most of these are probably obvious to many, but to me was a kind of revelation.
The albums I make are 13x11 on matte fancy paper (I use blurb).

* K5II for sure, and in some cases various mobile phones we have, with a touch of Lightroom and TopazLabs stuff here and there, produce perfectly fine results on this format. Yes, you can tell which is which, but none are really bad. My anxiety I won't be able to capture the moment was mostly unfounded.
* APS-C is it for me and 16mp is enough. Yes I have K3III but for other reasons; if it was 16mp I'd still go for it. I printed K5II photos up to 28x36 and found no case where I felt I need more resolution. This settled my dilemma about FF or mirrorless or whatever I didn't have.
* more to the topic, the point of the album is to evoke memories, and surprisingly, the more photos I had of the occasion, the less memories they evoked. Like Dave above, I have few childhood photos but each contains a story, and smells and feelings. This made me change the way I use camera with family; I'll just leave it aside and take a photo if I feel the moment requires it. Otherwise, I'll enjoy the moment. No taking photos for the sake of it.
* We look at albums together, slowly, and I try to make kids pause and remember and discuss things while at particular photo. Hopefully they'll learn it's not about what's on the photo but what's around the photo. It's a different thing than skimming through mobile gallery.
* photos on larger format paper are so much more pleasing to look at than on screen. Screens are tiresome and push you to move on.

So yeah, less photos, on paper, very different and IMHO much more rewarding experience.

[CristiC]

Go back to 35mm film. Print them 4x6". That way you will keep just a few family album pictures and it won't matter how good they are.

P.S. Then I read the article that is linked in the OP. I very much liked it. Thank you Des.

[cxdoo]

Go back to 35mm film. Print them 4x6". That way you will keep just a few family album pictures and it won't matter how good they are.

4x6?! Luxury! Try 2x3, black and white, and calling that black is very generous.
I gathered a few boxes of extended family photos and films and I'm in the very long process of digitizing them, so yeah, we are spoiled today.

[Rondec]

"Old man yells at clouds..."

I don't disagree with him on many of his points. To me, the main reasons to take photos are

(1) To help with family memories -- this requires some formal printing and scrapbooking effort. I usually do a scrapbook every year. My kids look through them regularly, as I journal little funny stories about them. I don't know that they remember any of these things happening, but they remember looking at the albums.

(2) Art. This is one of those things that is hard to judge. Most of us don't make great art -- at least not on a regular basis. But the effort to make art is enjoyable, even if you seldom achieve your true goal.

(3) Documentation of your life for social media. This is the thing that he doesn't seem to understand. I sort of understand it, but I don't really have a desire to do it. I have a feeling that sometimes you need to put down your camera and just enjoy life. There is a reason why most people pay someone outside of their family to take photos at their wedding. It is understood that the person behind the camera will be documenting things and will not be enjoying the wedding in the way the others will. If I am so focused on taking photos of my food and my kids and whatever else I come on, I know that I won't get as much pleasure from the fun times we have together. I guess my feeling is to take a few photos and then put the camera down and make sure you are fully a part of things.

(4) Because it's a hobby you enjoy. I like taking photos. I think probably because I like going on little hikes by myself or waking up early and driving to some secluded point to watch the sun rise (did you all know that the sun doesn't actually rise? It's the earth's turning on its axis that makes it appear so). As such, I continue to take images, even though the internet is overloaded with images that are better than mine. I do think I get a little better over time. Occasionally I snag a photo that the dots actually connect, but even if that only happens a couple of times a year, I still love going out in the quiet and feeling a little peace that I don't get during the week.

I think most of us want to leave a mark behind. Probably the best way is in the memories of others -- hopefully that we were kind and generous. Certainly another way is in the photographs and scrapbooks we leave for the next generation. They don't have to be great art to be worthwhile.

[AstroDave]

(did you all know that the sun doesn't actually rise? It's the earth's turning on its axis that makes it appear so).

You bet I do! And, I could probably tell you a lot more about that (Earth rotationa and orinetation) than you care to know

Such as: every day is somewhat longer or shorter than the day before, at the microsecond level, and varies at the millisecond level over the year.

[Rondec]

You bet I do! And, I could probably tell you a lot more about that (Earth rotationa and orinetation) than you care to know

Such as: every day is somewhat longer or shorter than the day before, at the microsecond level, and varies at the millisecond level over the year.

So what do you think the scientifically correct terms for sunset and sunrise should be?

[Wheatfield]

What is it that was so wonderful about family albums? Most are of little real interest to the outsider - umpteen pictures of strangers on the beach at Margate, smashed out their skulls New Year 1957 or 30 seconds before puking all down that lovely cardigan Grandma crocheted for the little mite. I feel more for the closing quote in that piece: “ But if you really want to know the truth, then yes, taking pictures has given me a lot of happiness.”

Family albums are history. When we lose our history we tend to repeat the mistakes made in the past. For example, in my little world, it was a picture of my fathers family from the early 1930s that led me to ask who are those two guys? They were my Uncle Bert and Uncle George I was told. They died fighting in WWII.
This led me into an interest in the history of the Twentieth Century, specifically the two World Wars, since to understand WWII, one must also look at WWI.
This led me to take an extreme loathing for the Nazi movement, which I blame directly for the deaths of two uncles that I never had the chance to meet.
It has also led me to a realization, given current world events, especially those on certain circles in North America, that people don't take lessons from history, mostly, I suspect, out of a lack of education and sheer social ignorance, with the consequence being we are likely to have a repeat of the horror that was 1939-1945 except with more destruction.