Memory through photography

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For my dissertation research i have been looking into photography and memory and the ways that some people associate a photograph to be an actual memory and if this photograph was not taken then the event could be possibly forgotten altogether. I was just wondering what you're views are on this topic.
Do we remember through photographs and why it is you think that?
Can we remember an event without the aid of a photograph and what would happen if we didn't take a photograph?
And are photographs in fact replacing our memories? (that we constantly rely on them) or do you feel that a photograph can never be an actual memory?

Thanks :)
 
Personally I think photos act as a trigger for some memories, not the memory itself.

Lets face it, when some of us were kids you would be lucky to take 60 shots on a 14 day holiday, now I take 1400+.

So yes, I can remember things without a photo, if we didn't take the photos we MIGHT remember things differently (like the weather that day, bright/dull, clothes we wore etc) but at least we would still remember the day (if it was of importance)

I will also agree that sometimes the photo triggers the memory of the day, which I may not have thought about before seeing it. (ie it acts as a trigger, not the memory)
 
You should check out the book, Forget Me Not by Batchen, Geoffrey.

It’s an interesting subject, I am currently writing my dissertation too and this was something I considered studying.

I agree that there are certain images that trigger memories but I think it would be a stretch to suggest that the only reason you remember anything is because of a photograph.
 
Photography for the most part is about capturing moments, and locations so that we can relive them. Can we remember events without pictures, yes we can but we often need a trigger. That can be a smell and emotion or even looking at a photograph.

It's the accuracy of the photograph that reinforces the event rather than an approximation of what we thought happened. Also it helps other people relive the experience when they were not there

Photography is many things to many people, to to the majority it's capturing a moment so that it can be relived. And lets be honest, George Eastman built his business on that.
 
holdingyouclose said:
For my dissertation research i have been looking into photography and memory and the ways that some people associate a photograph to be an actual memory and if this photograph was not taken then the event could be possibly forgotten altogether. I was just wondering what you're views are on this topic.
Do we remember through photographs and why it is you think that?
Can we remember an event without the aid of a photograph and what would happen if we didn't take a photograph?
And are photographs in fact replacing our memories? (that we constantly rely on them) or do you feel that a photograph can never be an actual memory?

Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Watch Memento.
 
Thinking out loud...

Do we not think in pictures? ... If I'm thinking about a memory now I see pictures in my minds eye, locations and views, I imagine the wind and the smell of the sea, but I see the rolling sand dunes and the grassy tufts sticking up on each of them, I see the sea breaking in the distance and I start linking all my personal smaller connected memories from within that main memory scene... its my key memory scene, my entrance into the rest of the memory with its fine details and all.

So just like a photograph, any scene triggers our own memories photographic collection. Now I'm imagine the wealth of details within an actual photographs is able to trigger many different memories of that day and that moment, possibly way more than your own version of that view could do in the same instant...

So can I not now think of a photograph as a 'thorough memory' its details and accurate perspectives, its colours, textures and leading lines, the fixed and accurate details of that moment within my life frozen for life.

So that's it for me, this morning anyhow ... A photograph is a 'thorough memory' a highly detailed entrance into my own memory collection.

Just a thought.
 
What about specific photographic looks or effects. I swear, when I think back to my childhood everythings seems to be remembered as saturated and warm kodachrome. Weird, but my memory tells me the summers were warmer and sunnier when I was a youngster. This could easily be fuelled by photographs from the period.
 
A few years ago when my father died, a large box of 35mm slides were passed down to me. He was always taking pictures of me and my siblings as we were growing up and of our various camping holidays. It was only recently that I looked through the box as I had managed to get a scanner that I could scan the slides into.

Seeing us sit down to tea at my long departed grandmothers house or wandering around the various coastal towns not only brought back the memories but also the smells, and the atmosphere of those times.

But more than that, it also gave me an insight into how my father saw his family and how he wanted to capture those events for posterity. Being a child at the time, I was totally oblivious to who he was or what he liked, but seeing his non-family pictures has given me that insight and now when I look through the lens, I can hear myself saying, "Dad would have liked that"

Gary
 
I have memories from when I was nine or ten that only exist because I took a photograph. The photos haven't been seen for years, due to being "temporarily" mislaid or given away, yet I recall the images and the circumstances but not much else of the occasions. Seeing the photos no doubt helped to fix the memories.
 
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