Orta Lee Cameron

Recently I was given a few very old images of Orta Lee Cameron (better know as my Grandma) to restore. Looking at these images I started to think how interesting it is that we associate people only with our own personal experience with them. For instance with my Grandma I have always known her as the caring person who was always there to take care of me with a smile. She was always the one person I could run too if everything was falling apart. Whenever I visualize her in my head it is in my personal frame of reference though, a woman in her golden years of life. Never do I see here as (in physical form) as a different person. With looking at these images I am reminded that she was also a child not some much different from my children now. She was also a young woman about to experience love for the first time (with my Granddaddy). I am left thinking about the hundreds of other pictures of her that represent the history of my family. It is great that we have this media of photography that can capture not only an image but also one’s emotion and sense of being in time.

This all got me thinking, in the future how we will reflect on the past? Will we still have hard prints of images like the generation before us or will everything be digital. Will we be concerned with the older images or will they be forgotten and erased for the latest and greatest profile pictures. In the past people cherished family pictures because you only had a few and they usually were one of a kind. Now everything is digital and you can have hundreds of images at a click of the button. Does this devalue the images? Are pictures going to be less important to a family’s heritage? Time will tell. Me I still miss the days before digital where you had to work in the dark room for hours on one print. Man I’m getting old!!!