My photo fad was no flash in the pan

THEY say every picture tells a story... and I have 16,536 of them on my phone.

That’s no word of a lie. I love taking pictures.

Over the last month, as part of my friend’s 30th birthday gift, I made a photo book filled with images from our school years, university, family and all the memories and pictures taken in between.

As I made the album, I started to think about how much photography has changed in my lifetime. The images from our school years were a little blurry and often out of focus but we made the best of what we had at the time.

I remember taking a disposable camera on holiday and only having 25 pictures on the film to play with. Then, taking it to get developed and hoping the person printing the pictures wouldn’t see anything too embarrassing.

Now, our lives are captured on high-definition smartphones, giving us the opportunity to take 25 snaps just for the one perfect shot. It’s all instant.

And let’s not forget the invention of the front-facing camera for selfies. The end product is more polished but much less real.

The best pictures that made it into my friend’s album weren’t ones we had posed and taken 50 options of, it was the ones which captured those “remember when...” moments and made us laugh at our outfits and style choices over the years.

Although, with over 16,000 images on my phone, it has made me question whether or not I need to capture quite as many photos.

During lockdown I printed a lot out and made them into photo albums from different events. But has the age of digital photography made images less meaningful?

As a journalist I work with images everyday. The first thing I think of when pitching a story is – how can I illustrate this?

Are there images, are they good quality, what do they add to the narrative?

Often with breaking news stories the pictures we use the most are from people on the ground. Smartphone cameras and people at the scene have captured some of the most important images in recent history.

For example, in the midst of the 9/11 Twin Towers attack is a powerful image which is now known as the “falling man”. It was captured in a single take and depicts the depths of human tragedy on that day.

It became famous, printed in every national newspaper the world over. And while some may question whether it was right to use the image at all, it highlights just how important photography can be.

I may not look at all of the images I have on my phone or flick through the photo albums I’ve made over the last few months of lockdown. But I know that by the time I’m 40, 50 or 60 and celebrating another milestone birthday I will want to have something to hand to show how special and laughter filled the years have been.