B is for Bragging
The word “bragging” can mean:
Conceited, boastful, swaggering
I am from the generation who used to take photographs to the chemist to be developed. It took several days for them to be developed, and until you opened that wallet of photographs you had no idea how good they were. Sometimes you couldn’t even remember what you had taken photographs of because a roll of film could lie in your camera for days or weeks before you finished it. It was exciting to open the wallet and go through your photos. Most of them were really poor. If you had taken four photos, from a roll of 24, which were worth keeping, you were doing well. You put the photos in a drawer, with the hundreds of others, and put the few good ones in a photograph album. You then showed them to a few friends and relatives. Buying film and developing it was fairly expensive, and, so people did not take lots of photographs.
Nowadays, of course, we have the technology to take and store thousands of photos and then unleash them into the world through the cyber albums of Instagram, Facebook, twitter and the many other social media platforms. Now, instead of showing our photos to a few friends and family we are hell bent on exposing our photos to the world. We put a photo out there and then spend the next few hours constantly checking how many likes, comments and shares our work of art has received. This is a form of boasting. Look where I have been, look who I was with, look what I have been doing. Or in other words: “GET ME” It is very conceited to think that other people are interested. (Yes I know this is all getting somewhat hypocritical.) I once put a photo, of which I was really proud, of Wells Next the Sea on Facebook. Reflecting on this – I acknowledge I was just showing off that I had taken a nice photo. Being old fashioned, I have also printed it off and put it in my photograph album.
Now to get to the point.
I love to go places and experience views, history and culture and spend good times with friends. I do feel however that increasingly too many of us are limiting our experiences because our focus is on taking photographs, recording the moment instead of being in it. We have become addicted to recording our lives to brag about what we have been doing and to show off how good our lives are. I think this, particularly, when people video things to share. Whenever we watch something noteworthy (one example which springs to mind is an impromptu music event in an Italian square on a beautiful warm, summer evening.) there will be a sea of cameras held up to record the event. We have forgotten how to just immerse ourselves in an experience, and, more importantly, forgotten that we have a really good recording device in our head. Why not shut your eyes, enjoy the music? Why not sit down and watch? Our memories can last a lifetime, we don’t need to photograph and share everything.
So, travel the world, experience the awesome and be cool. When you see or hear something beautiful consider focusing on it and the fact that you are there. Don’t be diverted by thinking about how you can show it off to others.
Photography is an art form, a beautiful photo can capture a moment but so can your memory.
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