They’re Never “Just Snapshots”

I'm out of the office this week, spending time with my family as we say goodbye to my grandad. Today he would have been 94.

I’ve talked about Grandad here before, on more than one occasion (this brief post from 2014, this longer one from his 90th birthday four years ago). He had a huge influence on me discovering and loving photography, and supported and nurtured my pursuit of it my whole life.

Three weeks ago I drove up to New Jersey to see him and my grandmother, and I grabbed a fistful of prints as I ran out the door, so he could see my family. He told me yet again just how important and necessary photography is, as he thumbed through vacation photos of my kids at the beach and snapshots from the first day of school. They weren’t just snapshots to him. They’ve never been “just snapshots.” They’re a record of our family, of our life. They become more important with the passing of time, not less.

This photo from my childhood keeps bouncing around in my brain. I don’t know why, with the hundreds and thousands of family photos we have, that this one is sticking, but it is. I unearthed it from its album to satisfy my brain’s need to see it in person.

It’s 1990, and Grandma let 8-year-old me take a photo on her prized Polaroid camera, with only 10 precious shots in each cartridge. Grandad’s holding his camera in his hand. My brother cannot be coaxed to look up at the camera and away from the neighbor’s cat.

It’s just a snapshot. A moment in time in the front yard. But it’s more than just a snapshot. It’s the Polaroid camera that Grandma would bring to Virginia every summer when she and Grandad visited. It’s the flood of memories of what else they would bring, their car packed so tightly it took nearly an hour to unpack it when they arrived. It’s the hugs that were so tight we couldn’t breathe, the scratchy stubble and the magenta kisses left on our cheeks.

I’m being reminded, yet again, of just how important and necessary photography is. Of how daily life deserves to be documented and how precious our lives together really are.

Take the picture, share the picture, get in the picture. Double chins and extra pounds be damned.