Empty space in family album: me.
Backstory
Over the years, I have taken thousands of pictures. Birthdays, Christmas gatherings, vacations. My children as infants, toddlers, pee-wee footballers and tiny dancers, as high school cheerleaders, soccer players, senior play soloists, and formal-clad prom dates, as capped and gowned graduates and tearful newlyweds. The early moments live now in albums, with hundreds more that have not been put into books still tucked into boxes. More recent years were captured digitally, and they exist on my facebook page, or files on my computer or stored on disks and thumb drives. So many special moments, special memories. I was there to catch them all, record them, and save them...and I'm so very glad I did.But when those pictures are looked at in the future, there will be a hole. Something will be missing in all those scenes of infancy, childhood, teen, and young adulthood....me. Always behind the camera, I was never in front of it....and so I wonder....will anyone remember that I was even there?
by accidentaltourist in Six-Word Memoirs on Nov 22, 2012 | 
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Comments
canadafreeze says,
I, too, am the photographer and often feel invisible ... and wonder ...favepeep says,
Don't know if you saw this; if no, it's seems to address the issue you're talking about...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/allison-tate/mom-pictures-with-kids_b_1926073.html?utm_hp_ref=parents&ir=Parents
Get back in the picture!
Staraj says,
We'll always have Paris . . . and your feet. Here's looking at toes, kid.MO_Thoughts2 says,
Me too.lovelylizard says,
I purposely avoid the camera, have you done that also? I'm sure people wanted you to be in family pictures over the years and you've said "not now, maybe later". Well, it's later, and as favepeep said, "get back in the picture", better late than never.accidentaltourist says,
fave--I think I might have seen that story. LL--truth is, I'm the family shutterbug, the one who remembers to bring the camera, and to actually use it. Others are welcome to pick it up and snap a shot of life....but they never do. Truthfully, I don't avoid the camera...it just seems to avoid me.DynamicDbytheC says,
My co-worker has done this for years. Now at every event, I grab her camera and take at least two pictures of her celebrating with everyone. She is no longer absent for work events and parties. Same with my husband. I have an entire trip in Paris of photos of just me. Now I won't let him get away with that.accidentaltourist says,
Whenever I tell my grown daughter about something interesting/amazing/strange that I read or heard about, she will throw her favorite catch phrase at me: "pics or it didn't happen."Which brings me full circle. Without the pics, did any of it happen?
DynamicDbytheC says,
It only happened to the people IN the pictures.L2L3 says,
This will someday be my backstory.Wench says,
Most of the time, this is me as well. But with Constantine, I've tried to make sure that we have pictures together. It's harder to get my husband in a photo. He hates having his picture taken and groans every time I take the camera out. But yes, we do need ANOTHER picture of Constantine playing in the tub or looking out the window! All these moments have been flying by and I want to remember the way all of us were. Some of my favorite childhood pictures are the ones of my parents, when they were young, excited parents.Wench says,
The hardest thing for me has been accepting that not every photo needs to be a work of art, it's ok to get snapshots. I think I need a regular old point and shoot to help me with this.Believe says,
I feel the same. Great backstory.notjustagirlintheworld says,
I do not appear on film: fact.I sometimes resent being the photographer because by nature it takes you out of the action and the picture.
accidentaltourist says,
notjusta....are we vampires, do you think?Wench...I keep myself to the point and shoot (or as a photog friend called it, PHD..."push here dummy") for that reason. I don't want to get so caught up in the creation of a moment that the moment because painful for everyone. I had an uncle who staged Christmas morning, had the kids fake excitement after they had already seen the tree and gifts, for the photo op. And just this weekend I was at a 1 year old's birthday party, where dad had both video camera and still camera in everyone's face. There isn't a moment of that child's life that isn't captured on film...but there are moments that are missed because someone's hands are full of camera equipment.
KharisJo says,
i love to take photos but have only just begun to accept myself in them. on a recent holiday discussed with my love how important it was to just experience moments rather than concentrate too much on photographing them. the camera can become a tyrant. sometimes it's good to capture images in words instead of, or as well as photos.accidentaltourist says,
A great concept, KharisJo....think of the photo as a six word memoir instead of a sonnet or soliliquy.lillybrook says,
I hope that there will -- somehow -- be documentation that I, too, was the archiver of memories. Great memoir.