My obsession with pictures began when I was just a little kid. My mom stored most of our family pictures in the deep drawer of her bedside table. I would often sit on the floor in front of it and go through every single one. In my own little world, off in the quite corner of my parents room, next to the rocking chair I went through those pictures so often that I had to have memorized their order, but I didn't care. (I'm not even sure anybody knew I did this as much as I did) I loved having a memory on a piece of 4x6 glossy paper. I especially loved seeing the pictures of before I was born, imagining the great time everyone was having in that moment.
By far my favorite of all of the prints in our home, weren't the ones found in this magical drawer. They were the ones that deserved a frame in that room that was too nice for the kids to sit on the furniture....the golden oldies....the black and whites. With technological advances now allowing us to take beautifully colored pictures, it makes it hard for some people to revert back to the black, but to me they are the most beautiful of them all.
My love of pictures hasn't faulted to this day, although I have been forced to get off the floor of my parents bedroom. A few years ago they were nice enough to buy me my very own Nikon DSLR camera....to which I still greatly appreciate. They are always encouraging me use it whenever possible, (they don't have to do much convincing) but seem to always ask the same question from time to time. ''Sarah , we bought you this big expensive camera, why are these pictures in black in white?"
It's not that I don't appreciate color, believe me I do. For me black and white brings out the true emotion of a picture. As someone who tends to concentrate on a lot of the non-important aspects of life (I've mentioned my self diagnosed OCD right?), it gives me a true sense of relaxation to look at something so beautifully simple. There is a particular picture of my mom that is by far my favorite of all. It was taken by a friend of hers when she was close to my age.
Other than our height, there aren't a lot of physical features that me and my mom seem to have in common. When I was a kid this used to bother me a lot, but when I would look at this picture I was able to see all the other beautiful things we had in common that didn't stand out to me as much in colored prints or in reality.
See that's the difference between color and black and white for me. I looked at that huge stack of colored photos in that drawer a million times, but I can't think of one in particular I liked the most, not even a top ten. But those black and whites, those few that were worthy of a frame. All I have to do is close my eyes and they give me more than just a memory.
No comments:
Post a Comment