The new uses of photography continues to grow.
“It’s not that my memory improved but, instead, that I started archiving these events and ideas with my phone, as photographs. Now, if I want to research the painter whose portraits I admired at the museum, I don’t have to read through page after page of my chicken scratch trying to find her name. When I need the title of a novel someone recommended, I just scroll back to the day we were at the bookstore together.
Looking through my photo stream, there is a caption about Thomas Jefferson smuggling seeds from Italy, which I want to research; a picture of a tree I want to identify, which I need to send to my father; the nutritional label from a seasoning that I want to re-create; and a man with a jungle of electrical cords in the coffee shop, whose picture I took because I wanted to write something about how our wireless lives are actually full of wires. Photography has changed not only the way that I make notes but also the way that I write. Like an endless series of prompts, the photographs are a record of half-formed ideas to which I hope to return.”
— Casey N Sep
I am working on something that is so far out of the box for me that it is a kind of a whole new path.
With an iPhone.
Catchy title… But what are you saying. I seem to have missed your point. Is it just that you take photos of stuff you want to remember?
In this case I am a traditionalist. I would like communicating clearly to be a form of communication.
Well, not that exactly.
Reporters and authors have usually relied on notes taken by hand. The camera gives us more information that can be more readily remembered and understood within contexts… contexts that can be forgotten.
Traditional is good, however traditions are also a state of flux that makes new traditions – and when we are in the middle of that transition it is hard to see where we stand. One foot in the past traditions and one in the ethereal mist of the future.
“The study is small but fascinating: taking photographs changes the way we experience the world, but reviewing them can change the way we remember the experience. In the article, Henkel relates her findings to other research on taking notes: “Similar to the finding that reviewing notes taken during class boosts retention better than merely taking notes (Bui, Myerson, & Hale, 2013; Knight & McKelvie, 1986), it may be that our photos can help us remember only if we actually access and interact with them, rather than just amass them.””
Using photographs to recall may mean more clarity. Recordings of interviews are better than notes. (Having been mis-quoted on several occasions by ‘good’ journalists, I am keenly aware of how important great notes/recordings can be.)
I am also aware of how many writers are using images (Harry Potter was totally drawn out, as was Catch-22 by the authors before writing commenced.)
I think there will be more and more uses for photography within the field of journalism, writing, and communications. And not by those who are not traditionally visual creators.
Also, a reminder/
I am not the author, she is linked in the title. There is a lot more to the article.