Heart and Mind

The Snapshot Archeologist

I've recently had the good fortune that an old friend from my high school days has been scanning in old pictures from "back in the day," as the saying goes, and sending them to me.

It's awesome.

People who know me well tend to know that I like this kind of thing. The url line of this blog, as I have mentioned numerous times, comes from a series of unfinished essays called, "Thymenage," a term I coined by making a deliberate, spice-like misspelling of two terms that, together, tremendously inspire me to write, discuss, and expound: "time and age."

So, of course, I love the fact that I and the other people in these pictures look younger... look dated... look out of style... and sometimes look plain "ridiculous" by today's standards.

I love all that stuff, and that goes without say. (Although I guess I just said it, didn't I? I certainly didn't say it anywhere near to the verbose degree to which I am capable of doing, at any rate.)

But there's more to it than all that.

I feel as though coming across an old picture is like finding an amazing archeological relic.

Sometimes I actually recall certain pictures, but I will not have seen them in decades and assume that I never will again. More often, I simply will not even have any knowledge or recollection of the existence of a given picture. Either way, seeing the old picture creates this sense that a major personal revelation has occurred.

Now, this is usually not because I am completely blown away by what we look like in these old pictures (although sometimes I still am). After all, I have seen other pictures from the era, so it's not like I don't know what I looked during that time period. Consider this to illustrate the point: one of these pictures that was sent to me was a picture taken on a school field in caps and gowns right after our graduation ceremony. I told my friend that, in fact, I, personally, already have a number of "graduation pictures" that were taken from the same "photo shoot," so to speak, where the pictures I have were certainly captured within minutes of this new picture that came my way. So it's not like I didn't know what I looked like on that day or in those clothes or in that setting.

And yet, the picture has tremendous value to me because it's a different picture than the ones I know, regardless of its overwhelming similarity.

The bigger question, then, is, "Why does this matter to me?" And I think I have an answer.

Photos from back in the day—even ones that we considered poor snapshots back then for whatever reason—have amazing value today because they are elusive. You can't go back and take a picture of life at age 17 anymore. That window's past. So if you want to have a record of that era, you have to rely on stuff that already exists. It's a finite amount of stuff, though.

Get it?

There is a certain number of pictures of us that were taken at age 17, and once you've seen every one that was taken, you'll never see another. Never. It's a fact.

So that's what makes it so great when I get a picture I haven't seen or don't have. It's like, "Wow, this is amazing! How cool to have discovered that there is another picture from this era floating about in addition to the ones I knew about!" Therefore, even the crappy ones—where I have bad hair or I look ugly or unstylish or whatever—have significant value. More value, one might argue, than a great picture taken today, because that could be re-staged, or you could take another picture tomorrow that would be basically the same. (Although those pictures from the modern era will have that same increased value in the future when they become old and dated.)

I've discussed this before on the blog when I talk about "personal history," but the fact is, unless you're famous, no one is going to celebrate the very worthwhile history that you and your loved ones have shared and lived. Except, perhaps, for you and your loved ones. And it deserves to be celebrated. Everyone's history does. So when you dig up a photographical artifact, relish it. It's fantastic.

posted by Steve @ 2:34 PM