You Can’t Hug A Photograph!
“You can’t hug a photograph”, a line from one of my most favourite films of all time ever, “The Goonies” when Data tells his Daddy that it’s ok his invention doesn’t work, a camera that pops off your body on a spring, just as they’re rescued from the Fratelli’s and before they discover their pot of gold. If you’re an 80s kid you’ll know. If you’ve not seen the film then hurry, rush, find it on the ‘Flix and watch it with your own kids. It never dates and unlike the sentiment in Data’s words, I very much find watching this piece of cinematography like a serious hug from my childhood. I love it, the sense memory of watching this flawless kid caper takes me to a very happy place indeed and I’m right back to being little, watching it on repeat and then talking about it with my friends at school. I remember my childhood very well, not that we have many photographs of our own from then it has to be said!
I guess 30-40 years ago home photography wasn’t such a big deal and what with having to send films off to be developed and their cost it’s no wonder my Mum’s collection of my childhood photographs is rather limited. Limited by today’s standards at any rate. I take pictures of my children daily, I love it. I love to have the pictures, to use them for Instagram, to post them on Facebook and though my family moan that I take too many and I’m always bothering them for a family picture, everyone is always really pleased to have them afterwards. Photography has just leapt in the past 3 decades meaning the instant element to it is accessible to all and having a camera at our finger tips in our phones means we never miss a moment. This suits me rather well but there are two down sides to modern photography I think does rather let it down.
- The art of the bad photograph – We just don’t have them anymore as with digital instant pictures comes digital instant delete and that waiting for the Majorca pictures to come back from the printers only to howl at a double chin, grimace or accidental decapitation. On the whole it’s a good thing and money isn’t wasted but there’s something quite fabulous about a “bad picture”.
- Never having the physical photographic hug – Ok, so as we’ve established, you can’t hug a photograph but… It is rather lovely to have an actual picture, printed out, in a frame or album, to have and to hold and keep forever instead of being locked in the ether somewhere. I have thousands of photographs up in clouds but barely any on the wall!
So…
I want to make sure I print pictures out more, have them in my home so that I can enjoy them without turning on a computer or app on my phone and love them in the real. Well, you know what I mean!
Printing billions of pictures out is a hassle though so yet again I will turn to the digital age and use modern tech to make my pictures, my new fashioned pictures, have an old fashioned element to them, an old fashioned hug if you will. In step, the photobook!
Oh I do love a photobook, I buy them as gifts and make sure any important holidays and occasions are recorded like this because it feels even more special to have them all printed out. I also love to have pictures on the wall on the stair well up to my bedroom so I can see favourite ones on my way up to bed. I have a sort of photo wall montage of canvas prints mixed with traditional framed photographs and I blooming love it. I also really want to get some posters of my favourite photographs printed. You will find a selection of posters and canvas on Bonusprint.
So in essence Data may have been right, you can’t hug a photograph but real, proper pictures can 100% give you joy and can make you feel hugged and loved. Especially when they’re given as gifts. I always send photographs of the children to grandparents and aunts and uncles, I make photobooks of holidays for the people we’ve been away with and I make photograph calendars at Christmas for everyone too. You can’t hug a photograph but you can bring a great big smile to my face with one that’s for sure!
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