Reflections on creating and documenting lasting memories often
I have a few friends who cannot go a few minutes without taking pictures and videos. They don’t even need to be doing anything extraordinary; they just like to capture the moment as they experience it. We could be sitting down having a drink, and the next thing, they whip out their phones and start snapping away. And they often have pictures and videos of the most random events or things.
I envy them. I like to capture special moments too; parties, friends, the first visit to a new place, or an artfully plated dish, but I often forget to preserve these happenings. For instance, every time I go for a brisk walk, I remind myself, “take a picture,” but remember only after I’ve returned home.
I could be walking along the road, see something that reminds me of someone, and I’d be at my destination before it occurs to me that I could have taken a picture and shared it with that person. Sometimes I wonder if I could ever make a good eyewitness because many times, the moment passes before I remember I could have taken a picture or video. I mean, all of those people who capture candid moments, good or bad, how do they immediately think to bring out the phones and click or press record?
The irony is that I spent a lot of my childhood immersed in family albums. I would just sit down and flip the pages again and again as though I expected the pictures to change or jump out of the pages. I was, and I still am, fascinated by the memories that people document. I guess I need to reignite the “take a picture at every moment” spark that I once had.
Growing up, one of my aunts had what I would call “growth albums”, albums with labelled pages to document the life of a child, and many parents bought them when they had their first child. The first page would be for the baby’s picture as a newborn, the next page would be the baby’s first month picture, and then other milestones. First tooth, first crawl, first steps, and all other significant firsts from the first day in nursery to the last day in primary school.
My father had a video recorder that he carried about. It was this huge device with space for a video cassette that you had to place on your shoulder. You then looked through an aperture, set your gaze, and then clicked on record. He would often take it to parties or on random outings and just record the sights and sounds. My brother and I would watch the tapes over and over again. I wonder if we expected to see something new!
When I got my first job as an attendant at a video club right after secondary school, I spent my first salary on a camera. I didn’t even think too much about it then; I just knew I had to have one. Thinking back now, I don’t know why I bought the camera! I had a lot of fun just snapping away and then taking the films for processing at a photo studio. Maybe I should have pursued professional photography and given Mario Testino a run for his money!
Getting to university in Ibadan and discovering motion ground (an area where photographers lined up and took pictures of people posing for a fee) was fun. There seemed to be a huge culture around taking pictures back then. There were various motion ground replicas around campus, and practically all higher institutions of learning had several motion grounds. The props and shots were also quite similar, making one think the photographers all learned from the same school!
I have a lot of pictures from back in the day: at motion ground, in class, doing field work, at dinners or parties, on excursions, or just playing around campus. And this was all before digital photos, when you had to find a photographer and they’d have to process the pictures in a dark room. The digital generation may never understand this process!
With digital devices, documenting your memories is just a click away. If you don’t like the image or the video, you can take it again, by yourself. You can edit the images: make them brighter or darker (filters anyone?), sharpen or retouch, change the colours, and even add and remove things. The average person is already a photo editor thanks to all the picture editing tools available nowadays. We all don’t have any excuses for not documenting our memories now. The power is right in our hands.
But sadly, not everyone thinks about creating and documenting their memories, but we all should. Life is short and time passes quickly. People are here today and gone tomorrow, and it is the meaningful moments that we document that help us hold on to memories we hold dear.
We also get to strengthen relationships through shared experiences that enable us to build deeper connections with loved ones. Now that a lot of people are separated by geographic divides, pictures and videos of shared events keep one just a bit closer. There is also the benefit to one’s emotional well-being, as the positive memories we reflect on can lift one’s mood in times of sadness or even reduce stress or anxiety. It also helps lift one’s spirit during times of grief and distress.
A few times when I have felt down, all I did was just look at pictures and videos of past events, and they helped me reflect on good times, giving me a reason to be more grateful for what I have rather than what I didn’t have. Creating and documenting memories also helps give life some meaning, and it encourages living in the moment.
Documented memories contribute to building one’s legacy. Family and friends in the future can share stories of one another through stored media. Future generations also get a chance to connect with their ancestors as stories are passed down. Unlike material things, memories are priceless and irreplaceable. We can never buy time, but we can preserve it through our shared memories.
In the end, creating and documenting memories is not just about photos; it’s about living fully and making moments last. Every picture or video we take strengthens our connections, preserves our stories, and gives meaning to our lives. Let’s intentionally capture and share these moments, knowing that tomorrow, we and those we love will cherish what we’ve saved. This is the way I see things today.