There is a hallway in my parent’s house that is lined with
old family photos – the most prized one, an old, faded black and white
photograph of my grandparents’ wedding from 1923.
Fast forward three generations and about 100 years and you
find us; the most visually literate generation to have ever walked this
planet. Everyone from the age of 8 on
has a camera in their pocket. Whole social media sites have become dedicated to
sharing our images, all over the world, instantly. You can even add filters.
Fast forward another generation and the little girls of
today are the brides of tomorrow. And
some day, as our children prepare for their own weddings, they will inevitably
want to see pictures from our own.
Time to dust off the old iPhone 4s and hope the battery still works. Or
log on to…wait. What was it called? Oh yea, Facebook. We are an entire generation without tangible
photographs. What happens when your
computer dies, or your cell becomes obsolete or your favorite social media site no longer exists…remember Myspace?
As a wedding photographer it is not only my job
to create beautiful and timeless images, but to record for future generations,
a truly historical event in a family; the birth of a marriage. If my grandparents hadn’t gotten married in
1923, I wouldn’t be here. Let that sink
in. I owe my existence to an event that happened almost 100 years ago – I’d
kind of like to see that. And if it wasn’t
for that tattered old photograph in my parents’ house, I never would have
gotten to see my grandmother as a bride or how proud my grandfather looked in
his three-piece suit.
The value of your wedding album spans the distance of time; it preserves, for generations, the moment that you became husband and
wife and the beginning of your own family tree. It has taken me a while to truly understand the value of that – whenever you lose someone, those dusty old binders filled with old pictures are what the family gathers around to remember, laugh, learn and reflect.
What will we gather around in generations to
come?
