How to resurface memory treasures
So, after a long day of work what might we do? Binge watch a five-hour long streaming TV series as we often do? Or for the ultimate in relaxation, peruse through old photo albums?
A recent news photo showed soldiers carrying a pregnant Ukraine woman on a stretcher. They found her in a bombed facility. The following week I read she and her unborn child had died.
The image of that woman took me back to another horrific war photo. Snapped on June 8, 1972, that photograph is known as the “Napalm Girl.” In it a nude 9-year old youngster, Kim Phuc, with pain etched in her face, is running away from falling incendiary bombs. The New York Times carried a column with that photo titled “When a picture is worth a thousand tears.” Kim survived and lives in Toronto.
That Vietnam photo also reminded me of a fictional piece I wrote about that war with its people in the countryside using the materials from downed aircrafts to build makeshift living huts. I wouldn’t have remembered writing that story if it were not for the photo of the woman on the stretcher.
That same week when the memory of the Vietnam photo surfaced, I received a surprising text with a picture from my high school prom date. There we were, posing for the camera, she as a very mature 16-year-old and me, almost 18. Over time we remained in touch. And about 20 years ago my wife and I visited an anniversary gathering for my date’s parents in Escondido, Calif.
A second picture she sent me was a reminder of our pre-teen years. There she was with her sisters on the fire escape of our four-story high tenement in Spanish Harlem. For us, fire escapes had a use other than for fleeing from flaming buildings. In our small five-room apartments with no airconditioning during sweltering summer nights we thought of fire escapes as heat escapes.
That fire escape photo brought back another memory. I hand-delivered a note to my prom date when she was about 12 asking her to be my girlfriend. Immediately afterward I supposedly stopped talking to her. I have no recollection of going silent.
These photos reminded me of the cliché: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I agree with that saying. Words can movingly frame cherished and challenging moments from our pasts. But they are second by margins to a one-of-a-kind memory that photos can help us relive.
So, I wanted to know more about the relationship between photos and memory. What I read surprised me.
What about pigeons? Do they share a similar ability to humans in the recall game? Yes, they do, according to a Dr. Daniel Glaser, director of Science Gallery at King’s College, London. He added, “In studies they show high levels of recall when presented with different images.” And the images are, “helpful for finding food.”
I might not have felt so deflated if the doctor had touted dolphins and elephants up there with human recall IQs. But pigeons? Really! It reminded me about the aftermath years ago of sticking my hand into a nest on a bush near the entrance to our house. What followed was a flock of birds seemingly banding into an attack formation. They then swooped down from all directions, deliberately dropping around me white globs of avian poop.
Dr. Glaser went on to say, “a picture can trigger a buried memory and recall ... more rapidly than words.” That certainly makes sense to me. I have felt emotional sparks from photos that no words could have come close to triggering.
From Louise Carey, a photographer, I read, that “Looking at old photos is more relaxing than meditating.” So, after a long day of work what might we do? Binge watch a five-hour long streaming TV series as we often do? Or for the ultimate in relaxation, peruse through old photo albums?
A Daryl Austin, a journalist, for major publications, writes that taking photographs can be overdone. He believes we should try taking fewer photos and spend more time on remembering the moment. I see his point as being akin to the admonition of stopping to smell the flowers.
And Elizabeth Loftus, a psychologist known for her work in memory theories, maintains that taking too many pictures could lessen our abilities to retain memories. She says that “If you’re intentional about the photos you take, they can actually help you capture that moment you’re hoping to hold on.”
I believe I put my heart and soul into all my photo snapping. Whether they are of a gardener pruning a row of roses, the sun rays descending behind treetops, or of people with cheek characteristics unique to their faces. If that’s considered “intentional” photo taking, then that’s me.
Yet other studies suggest ordinary photos on smartphones can elicit joy and love and reinforce memories and relationships. I feel that joy when I see pictures of my grandchildren roll through my phone.
What I have learned is that memory treasures from past crossroads can be buried deep in one’s subconscious. So far down that they might never resurface were it not for photos. As it was for me with the photo of the Ukrainian woman and those from my prom date.