a long time ago i learned that a big part of your life needs to be undocumented and just simply enjoyed in the present. you don’t need to post a picture of the book your reading for it to be good. you don’t need to have a pic of you posing before the sea as proof that u had a good trip. there’s a very fine line between manufacturing moments for future nostalgia and honoring happy experiences by commemorating them into art. and it’s all about intention: do i want to take a picture because it would look good on ig or do i want to take a picture because i do not want to forget how insanely happy i am right now? or, preferably, do i even need to take a picture at all?
Photographer here. While this is making a very valid point I want to gently disagree with the first statement because I think no one should govern how people create (and keep) memories.
A lot of the time, we associate meaningful moments in our life with a specific feeling, a sound, a scent. And sometimes we associate them with an image instead. For a lot of people it can be much easier to remember a moment in all its vividness if they have a picture to go with it.
A photograph can be a memory made tangible and there is so much beauty in that. Capturing a moment does not take anything away from it, does not make it any less precious. Sometimes it even helps you enjoy it more intensely, to notice things you otherwise would not have paid attention to.
Instead of claiming that the majority of moments need to be undocumented, I would therefore rather say that not every moment needs to be documented. Do whatever feels right to you, do not feel pressured to do one or the other. The memory is yours, after all.
