print your photos
dear future sam,
print your photos.
get them off your phone and into the real world.
there’s something so Satisfying about a physical photo…
i’m down in southern california right now for a(nother) wedding, and we’re staying with my grandparents.
they have photos… everywhere!
in the kitchen. in the hallways. they even have a guest room they literally call “the gallery” because of all the large family portraits, going back decades.
there’s something so satisfying about looking at printed photos.
i like how some are organized methodically, while others are placed organically and haphazardly. i like how the ones in frames have a feeling of Significance. i like how the ones thumbtacked to the bulletin board curve with age, making them feel Alive, giving a poetic impermanence to something originally intended to create permanence.
and i love the feeling that comes from consuming something Not On My Phone.
i was using my phone to show my grandparents photos from last week’s wedding.
it was fine, i guess.
but i wish i had made prints.
they wouldn’t have had to awkwardly wait while i scrolled on my phone. they wouldn’t have had to squint at the small screen. and they would have been able to keep them!
there’s something so Satisfying about a physical photo…
get them off your phone and into the real world.
print your photos.
sincerely, past sam