New campaign celebrates the precious of the family snapshot
As a child, my family’s photo albums were stored above the TV, on the top shelf of the entertainment centre, protected by a sliding glass door. Too high for little hands to reach, they seldom left their resting spot and when they did, oh was it exciting! The baby pages were always my favourite. It was so satisfyingly strange to examine the photographic evidence of events predating my conscious memory. Could that baby really be me? What was going through my mind when that picture was taken? My sense of curiosity doubled with a trip down to the crawl space, where the older, more weathered albums of my parent’s childhood were stored. It’s an endlessly entertaining notion, as child, that your mom and dad started out as babies too. The albums of their youth seemed to offer a glimpse into a whole other world – a world filled with strange clothing, wacky hairdos and seemingly enormous eye glasses.
As I got older and my conscious memory grew, these albums began to develop deeper sentimental value. The images within their pages pieced together not only the specifics of my personal history, but the essence of an entire generation. My brother was not alone, it seems, in his childhood devotion to the bowl cut. The trends, triumphs and tribulations of these years have been well documented through the lenses of countless cheap automatic cameras.
This type of quick and easy amateur photography is completely unique in its ability to capture the ephemeral qualities of our everyday experiences. It offers permanence and tangibility to fleeting moments that might otherwise be long forgotten. The roots of snapshot photography can be traced back to the early years of the 1900s, when technological advancements allowed for cameras to become dramatically cheaper and easier to use. In the hands of the masses, the stiff and formal photographic conventions of the past were replaced with a yearning for authenticity. The average family now had the means to easily document their victories, celebrations and personal milestones: Vacations, holiday dinners, birthday parties, new cars, wedding ceremonies and just plain day to day living. The photo album emerged as an important keepsake – a place to chronicle and preserve a life time of memories.
Fast forward 100 years and we reach the advent of the digital age. We are now able to snap hundreds of pictures at a faster rate, a higher quality and a lower price than ever before. The advent of social media means that we are able to share these moments with family and friends all over the world, in an instant. There is no doubt that today’s snapshot photography is allowing us to connect, engage and communicate with an increasingly global community. Yet in all the excitement, we’ve begun to lose sight of the preciousness of the shot. With more people taking more pictures of more things than ever before its easy dismiss the potential value of each image. Often, the focus is no longer on preserving memories for years to come but on the immediacy of sharing. The photo album as family heirloom is perhaps a dying art form.
The Esplanade Art Gallery and the AFA Travelling Exhibition Program (TREX Southeast) have launched a social media campaign that prompts viewers to slow down and ponder the magic that lies within our own collections of personal photographs. Everyone is invited to share an image of “when they were young” to #WWWY2017 @MedHatEsplanade through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. The photographs will be printed and posted on the Gallery Foyer Wall as part of the current exhibition “When We Were Young”, featuring five local Medicine Hat artists: Susan Knight, Safira Lachapelle, Jessica Plattner, Wendy Struck and Kat Valenzuela. Exploring themes relating to the emotional complexities of childhood, the works on display will have you pondering your own bygone years. So why not dig out some old albums and join in on the fun!
Jasmine Keillor is art curatorial and education assistant at the Esplanade.