Prior to the breakup (see immediately previous post), I had developed a number of the
photographs from the trips to Malta and Spain.
After the breakup, I had to decide what to do with them. For some reason, I have a hard time throwing
out any photo of any kind. Something
about that glossy photo paper, just says I can’t throw it away where the memory
captured will slowly decay into nothing.
Maybe I would be okay with burning them, like the American flag. But I don’t have a fireplace, so I simply
hold on to them.
So for 6 months, I had these photographs sitting on my desk,
in those little cardboard carrying cases that you get from the developer, while
I thought about what to do with them. A
large part of me said to throw them out.
If I should change my mind in the future, I always have the digital
copies. I should throw them out because
it helps the process of moving on, and is emotionally easier. Additionally, it could be awkward if I should
ever happen to find another girlfriend and she sees them. But I didn’t like these options for a number
of reasons.
First, who goes and looks at old digital photos? No one.
This culture has gone digital and it is not for the better. We have lost a layer of intimacy. What produces the more profound emotion,
holding an actual photograph of your memory, or seeing it on a computer
screen? There is a difference. More of our senses are involved with the
actual photograph. We can touch it, hold
it close, maybe even smell it if we are keeping it in a box that has scents
from the experience. It is more
personal. And we are far more willing to
pull out a photo album and reminisce, than we are to pull out the computer and
load up the photos. Plus they are great
coffee table fillers. Digital copies
should serve as backups and nothing more.
Second, why are we always so eager to do what is emotionally
easy? If we have an incredible
experience and some tragedy occurs afterwards, that doesn’t mean we should stop
remembering the good times. When your
spouse of 40 years dies, do you simply decide to burn all the memories and
forget you were ever married? We mustn’t
live in the past, but we also shouldn’t pretend like it never happened.
And as for future girlfriends, they’ll just have to get over
it. I had an adventure and I’m not going
to hide the fact.
So, while it took me awhile to make up my mind, I decided to
keep the photos and get an album for them.
Which brings us to the purpose of this post. Photo Albums.
Picking one out was a terrible experience. I was appalled, offended, and ready to scream. The albums were devoid of any quality. They were flimsy, cheaply made, messes. Pages were wrinkled, easily ripped, and
offered insecure holdings for the photos.
Think about who buys photo albums anymore. Despite all my comments above, most of today’s
culture won’t buy photo albums, because their digital backups are their main
means of presenting the photos. That
means the people who buy photo albums are those who really have something worth
preserving, at least in their lives.
These are some of their most cherished memories, to be shared and remembered,
and the offerings to preserve some of those memories were cheap filth. That the makers of the albums, and the stores
that sold them, felt these were in any way suitable was what got me so mad.
After going to 3 different stores, my fourth stop landed me
at Jo-Ann Fabrics, where I was able to find a photo album that didn’t make me
want to throw it against the wall. As a
side note, I noticed it also happened to be made in America.
It isn’t a perfect album, but the main problem I have with
it is not its fault, but has to do with the mechanism for keeping the photos in
place. I have what they call the
magnetic paper. That’s where you lay the
photo on a sheet of paper in whatever orientation you want, and the paper is
slightly sticky to keep the photo in place.
Then you place a thin transparent plastic sheet on top of the page. That thin plastic sheet is a huge pain! It is staticy which means dust loves it. And once that dust touches the sticky paper,
you’ve got a mess on your hands. And it is really hard to keep out air bubbles,
due to the thickness of the photos themselves.
The thin plastic sheet is meant to lie perfectly flat, but the photos
add the smallest of change in height from an otherwise flat surface, and the
think plastic sheet doesn’t know what to do about it. So you get air-bubbles. And because the pages are slightly flimsy,
you can get more or less air-bubbles just by simply flexing the sheets. But the benefit is that the photos aren’t going
to budge, and you can orient them however you want.
