Do you get depressed looking at pictures from your youth?

You got this strange feeling when looking at a picture because it depaints reality. The distorsion btw the latter and what we believe always makes me kind of weird or ill. That's what I always felt and knew to put into words since I know the work of the great Diane Arbus.
 
Leigh Youdale said:
I have to agree in that turning 30 also seemed like a big deal - you can't say or think "I'm in my 20's" any more. However, turning 40,50 & 60 didn't seem anything special. But 70 started to sound a bit old, even though most of the time I still think I'm 35.
Age is a state of mind. You can think "old" and pretty soon you'll act old and be old, no matter what your age. Or you can think "young" keep healthy and active, keep an open mind and be interested in what's going on, plan a few things to look forward to and mix with people a bit younger so you don't become a fuddy-duddy.

I fly gliders, go out to play music three nights most weeks - either Blues or Country or Folk, belong to an active photographic club, am about to start learning to paint watercolours, and planning a road trip around Australia for next year after the trip to Italy & France. Life is pretty interesting if you just work at it a little bit and try different stuff.
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Well, there you go!!! Fantastic!:angel:

This is the kind of attitude everyone needs no matter the circumstances.

Looking back at photographs is good. It is evidence that we exist at all and what makes it special is when others verify that evidence with acknowledgement through conversation, companionship or just a brief smile. It is also a 2-way street that we travel each day.:)
 
No. To the depression question. For the last few years, I have been thinking of photography as a scaffolding for memory.

Over time my brain has conflated the recorded moments into a convincing narrative. I _love_ pictures of my past, particularly ones I have not seen before. I recently saw a silent B&W super-8 movie of a holiday gathering at my parents' home from when I was five or so. Amazing! I have no conscious memory of the day or of decorations in the rooms captured on that film, but instantly recognized the scene. It was like a shelf of memories that hadn't been used in a while had been knocked down for inspection after many years.

I have now been taking pictures for long enough that I can surprise friends with pictures of them taken decades ago. It is like a visit with their former selves.

It does seem to me that a key difference from the way the world was when I was in my teens and started actively photography is the immediacy which the net brings to us for events all over the world. And the world, for all of its possibilities, has always been a pretty grim place. I suppose part of what I see when I look at those pictures are photographs from a time before my awareness of that grim reality was as close to the surface as it is now.

For what it is worth, I do think life gets better, more interesting, as you go through it. This is, I suppose, a distinctly middle-aged point of view. But when I think of the choices before me now compared to those before me when I was 20, I feel rich indeed.

Buck up buckaroo.
 
I'm 24 right now so I don't have a lot of perspective to comment on the issue.

A few years ago when I got bitten by the film bug, I got a terrible need to document my friends and life as it happens – for me, and hopefully, my future children to look at in the future. Now looking back at pictures taken just a year or two ago, I get a warm feeling when I remember all the good times we had, and it's also a bit alarming (in a good way) to see how fast time actually moves. I can see how much younger me and my friends looked just a few years ago, so it makes me to try to make everything out of the little time I've got on this planet.

I guess part of the reason I want to document it on negatives and silverprints is that my father died some years ago, and I thought it was magical to find a box with pictures from his youth. I think it's both nice and sad that I have to interpret the story behind each picture, as he's not here anymore to tell me what really happened. Those pictures are a nice way of keeping the memory of him alive, and that's what I want my pictures to do for someone in the future.

I'm just more convinced that the pictures have a better chance of surviving the teeth of time when they are in an actual physical form in addition to being on hard drives.
 
It's all about having the correct perspective.
My advice to you who are still in your 20's, find that perspective.
The sooner you do, the more time you'll have to enjoy this life.

By the way, it's not as obvious as the world made it out to be.

But when you found it, you'll know, because you'll have a healthy image of yourself, you'd be a much better person to be around, and you'll start to see others as people, not as objects to compare yourself to.

And you'll never think that growing old is a depressing thing anymore.
 
" Ahhhhhh...............they sure don't make nostalgia like they used to."


But more seriously, no I do not get depressed looking at photos of me in my youth.

I GET DEPRESSED LOOKING AT PHOTOS OF ME NOW!

This is me in my 20's playing pirate - complete with stuffed shoulder parrot while sailing int he Pacific on a tall ship. God I was skinny back then.

Sh#t, now I am depressed.


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lem0n said:
I got a terrible need to document my friends and life as it happens – for me, and hopefully, my future children to look at in the future. Now looking back at pictures taken just a year or two ago, I get a warm feeling when I remember all the good times we had, and it's also a bit alarming (in a good way) to see how fast time actually moves.

I guess part of the reason I want to document it on negatives and silverprints is that my father died some years ago, and I thought it was magical to find a box with pictures from his youth. I think it's both nice and sad that I have to interpret the story behind each picture, as he's not here anymore to tell me what really happened. Those pictures are a nice way of keeping the memory of him alive, and that's what I want my pictures to do for someone in the future.
I'm just more convinced that the pictures have a better chance of surviving the teeth of time when they are in an actual physical form in addition to being on hard drives.
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Plunging deep into philosophical mode ...... no, it's not depressing. And like LemOn I have my father's photo albums and slides dating from about 1920 and a cousin holds my grandfather's photo album.

And here's the truth.
Our immortality lasts only as long as someone remembers us. Most of us will not attain the dizzy heights of public fame and recognition so probably after two generations there will be nobody alive who remembers us - except through our photographs, and not necessarily the ones we have taken but the ones that were taken of us. Proof we were here, that we had connection with family and friends, what we looked like, where we were and so on.
It provides some form of ongoing visual narrative so that people who may not even be born yet, and may not be born before we die, can have some connections to their roots and antecedents that helps anchor them in life's currents and helps them identify who they are and what they are.
 
Tom A said:
One advantage (possibly the only one) of getting old(er) is that you can give advice about life - and be ignored by the young.
My biggest regret is probably that I didn't shoot enough of my life in the 20's - and unfortunately, what I shot mostly got lost in one the many moves (one box of negative binders looks like any other box and got mislaid, never to be found.
What is interesting is that the stuff you documented then had seemingly little interest or value - 40+ years later it is far more interesting!!!!
I am also happy that I did a lot of the stuff then that I can not do today. Never postpone a project/idea "I will do that later" - Later rarely arrives when it suits you!
Oh, another benefit of old age. I have been shooting my whole life and my "private" stuff has mostly been with triX - I dont need a meter anymore. Experience does count.
I dont envy youth - I wish them luck and hope they will enjoy life as much as I have enjoyed mine.

So keep track of your images, keep them safe and when in doubt, shoot another roll.
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Tom, such great advice as usual. I am in my mid 20's, working hard at my career and spending every moment trying to "live" but also develop professionally and as a person.

I just have to say, your post reminded me to feel extremely blessed for having grown up somewhat in somewhat of a hybrid ("old school" and "new age") lifestyle that allowed my early childhood to be developed with traditional, outside the house activities, e.g. playing sports, cops and robbers, board games, family vacations with no cell phones and usually no tv., fishing, hiking, boating, etc... Then in my early teens during high school, exposed to computers, the internet, photography, cell phones etc... life improved, but i think it hasn't consumed me. I have increased my hobbies, many being outdoor related (rock climbing) and i have to give some credit to the internet (and photography) for both educating and inspiring me to get out there and do it. I think began to learn how to utilize the internet for vast amounts of information and knowledge that just wasnt accessible just a few decades back, and certainly not as easy.

But bringing it back to photography, i am most grateful to have the technology, such as digital cameras, online storage sites, scanners, printers etc... all easily at my finger tips to capture my life, my friends/family's lives, ... and life in general each and everyday. It sounds like the values of the photos I already enjoy so much will exponentially increase in value (to me).
 


Well, I've gained a bit of weight in the intervening years, although I've gotten quite a bit better with a camera :) I'm actually in the process of going through boxes of my Dad's old Kodachrome slides, shot with the camera I learned on, my Dads Pentax K1000. Pictures of my extreme youth are far from depressing, I had a great childhood and spent a lot of time up north in the woods, which I miss alot living in the city.

Photos from my teens and early 20's are part depressing, because I really didn't take advantage of those years, but on the other hand I'm a much better photographer and a much better person now, if I can keep the forward momentum going I've got nothing but great things to look forward to.
 
I'm in my late twenties and I know the feeling. It comes and goes in various degrees, though it's not directly related to looking at old photos. I've always been nostalgic and love diggin into the past. Every time I'm home for christmas or whatever, opening up boxes upon boxes with photos is one of the first things I'll do. I can sit there for hours. Yeah it can get bittersweet, but when I'm thinking about all the moments I haven't documented yet, I just want to grab my camera, get the hell out there and see what life has in store for me. Should do just that right away haha. Got a new camera and all. Anyway.. I'm looking forward to the day I'm "really" old, as in a nursing home or on my death bed, and look at all the photos I have then. That's gotta be something!
 
the few photos of mine extant from 30-plus years ago are some of my favorites. still gotta get them scanned. negatives are long gone ...
 
I have the negs from the first time I snapped a shutter in 1953. I had my first camera at 7 years old and took it to school often and photographed my friends and teachers. I've continued to document life ever since. I now have hundreds of thousands of images and get great joy every time I go back in the archive. I really loved my college days in the 60's and after college into the mid 70's. Because of the passage of time these images that bring back great memories are now valuable records of the time. Now is just different and in many ways better and in some ways. It as good. It's just different and we make it what we want it to be. I'm a half full kind if guy most of the time. I'm getting ready to retire from the commercial work and see the. Next phase Of my life as possibly the best. I will have more time to focus on new documentary and art work.

If I could go back with the knowledge I have today I would shoot more images of daily life and life around my friends. We take things for granted thinking life doesn't change but in reality it's constantly changing but so slowly were not aware of the change till we look back through our photos one day.

I am grateful I've had the opportunity and skill to do what Ive done but regret I didn't shoot even more. I get great joy looking and sharing these slices of time.
 
At 55, the only thing that sucks is my favourite picture was taken 40 years ago. All these years and exposures later, I should have just stopped there ;)

Kodachrome taken with a Praktica Super TL with a Meyer 50/2.8 lens.
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Robert
 
I love looking at the photos I've taken over the past 45 years. And those taken by friends and family, etc. Many many many good times are there.
 
I hardly have any photos of myself from my childhood. What photos exist are mostly the awful posed family photos. "Now stand still ... okay, smile ... damn, got to turn it on ... okay, smile! (blinding flash) ..." The concept of candid, unposed photography never occurred to my family, ever. And then there are the years and years of photographic black spots where no photos were taken at all. Whole chunks of childhood and young adulthood gone because no one bothered to take photos, even me. So if there is any negative feeling from looking at old photos, it is because they are either terrible, or there are not enough of them.

I had a Kodak disc camera and shot about three discs with it when I was 13. I recently found the photos and they are fantastic, showing life at school, people horsing around, and all the rest. I only have contact with one person from school, and he's been my best friend for decades now. Seeing everyone as kids in little uniforms brought home to me just how young we were. Finding those photos was fabulous.

I also found a 110 cartridge camera with a half-exposed roll in it last year. I had it developed and found photos I had taken of friends from when I was 12! They were barely recognizable but I knew what they were.

I had a blast during my last years of school and years at uni. But almost no photos. I don't even have a photo of my girlfriend at university! If I could go back, I'd give myself an Olympus XA2, bricks and bricks of ISO400 colour film and Tri-X, and shoot one roll a week between 11 and 24. Then I'd upgrade to an AF compact like the Mju and keep going.

I make up for it now by shooting anything and everything. What the office looks like day by day, what I have to eat, when I go out with family and friends, everything. One thing I did do, as a child and teenager, was keep extensive journals. I still do this, giving myself an ongoing catalogue of experience as the days roll by. I look back on the photos I've taken and the words I've written and I smile with joy.
 
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