Quoting from the book On Photography, (Susan Sontag), which I wrote about last week, I found another quote from the book that I think speaks as well today as it did over 130 years ago.
The quote is from Macmillan’s Magazine, London, 1871, and gets at the power of family images. To understand why we work hard, struggle and put up with all sorts of difficulties and hardships in the name of love of family, the portraits that we cherish and hold dear remind us of those that matter most and make it all seemingly worthwhile.
“Any one who knows what the worth of family affection is among the lower classes, (this is 1871 after all), and who has seen the array of little portraits stuck over a laborer’s fireplace, (now the refrigerator),….will perhaps feel with me that in counteracting the tendencies, social and industrial, which every day are sapping the healthier family affections, the sixpenny (now 15 cents), photograph is doing more for the poor than all the philanthropists in the world.”
How we all mange to get through our day, and put up with what we do, all for the benefit of what we love, for many make life worth living. Photographs immortalize the person or time so we can be easily reminded of what truly matters for us. Other than music, (that other universal language), that we hum in our heads or whistle to or actually sing, photographs of family and friends enliven our souls and our day. Sharing an image of someone we love gets us through the toughest of times and keeps us going. What a gift this medium has proven to be, especially since anyone and everyone can participate. In this new digital world we now achieve wonderful satisfaction and memories to boot; images that can be shared and passed along. I feel better already.
