A picture tells a thousand words?

If a picture tells a thousand words, what about a thousand pictures?

An excess of anything no matter how good and virtuous it might be, almost always leads to an unhealthy end. With the emergence of the digital age, every individual; man, woman or child owns either a smartphone, digital camera, or any other device with photo-taking capabilities. This has inevitably led to an incursion of photos being taken. Nobody is satisfied with one picture when they can easily take another hundred. Does this growing trend cause photos to becoming frivolous and inconsequential objects?

Certainly there are the professional photographers out there who continue to capture breath-taking, evocative pictures that convey feelings and oozes emotions. These pictures win awards and undeniably tell a thousand words or more. There are also the budding or aspiring photographers who seek to attain those lofty goals. However what about us common folk, the ordinary people who lack the artistic and creative disposition possessed by the acclaimed few? Well everybody who owns a digital camera or even a smartphone nowadays might think he or she has innate talent as a photographer (myself included), but let’s be honest. Our inflated opinions of ourselves are backed by as much evidence as there is film in our cameras, zilch!

20 to 30 years ago, film was expensive, both to buy and to develop. Each roll of film only allows for 24 or 36 pictures, and each shot would be worth a few dollars. This led to much fewer pictures being taken, and each one to be cherished. They were either going into a photo album or into a photo frame. Today, it is claimed that an excess of 880 billion photos will be taken in a year!

With such staggering numbers, have pictures today lost their soul? Pictures are said to capture memories that one wishes to remember forever. Photographs are supposed to tell a story, reignited certain feelings, evoke emotions. Amongst the 880 billion photos, how many can claim to possess these attributes? We have the freedom to take as many pictures as our batteries allow, to store as many as our memory card or computer can take, to upload and share as many as our sharing sites can hold. However how many of these hundreds or thousands of pictures are really “keepers”, pictures that really mean something to us?

Picture-taking used to be for special occasions, birthdays, weddings among others. Now, it has become part of everyday life. Today, almost 250,000 pictures being uploaded every minute on social networking sites. There are people who takes pictures of every meal they eat, every outfit they wear and upload it to share with the world. It is not uncommon to see tourists in all parts of the world spending more time behind a lens than actually living in the moment. As it is with any valuable object, the more the quantity or supply, the less the item would be worth. 

I personally think that we are now very often taking pictures merely for the sake of taking pictures. Pictures today are often empty, with little or no connection to a memory or emotion. Picture-taking seems to shift from capturing one’s memories to becoming a social action, a tool for individuals to broadcast to the world what they are doing or where they are at. Pictures are less of a personal, treasured item, and are instead a publicizing avenue to advertise oneself. 

Sometimes less is a lot better than more. In this digital age, we should not be caught up by the whirlwind of latest crazes and fads. Instead we should always keep in touch with the things that mean the most to us. Perhaps it is time for people to pause for a moment before snapping that picture. Put the phone or camera down and soak in the moment. If you want to take a picture, first ask yourself if this is a moment you want to remember years down the road. Every photo should be able to evoke some emotions, bring about laughter or tears, capture a moment that will be lost forever. When looking back at those treasured photographs, life would seem meaningful and precious as it is supposed to be. Photography is supposed to capture and record life. The more frivolous the pictures are, the more superficial life would appear.