Your Photos and Home Movies are Worthless… Here’s Why

Why do we take photos and video? Is it simply to record a brief moment in time? Or is it to preserve our legacy for the future? The digital deluge is causing information overload, devaluing our very memories. We no longer connect a story with these discrete bits of photos and video files because that’s all they’ve become… digital files. Where’s the story behind these files?

Before the explosion of digital devices captured every second in an audio and visual world of 0’s and 1’s, people placed a much higher value on their photos and video footage. It seems strange, but having the ability to easily and cheaply record whatever you want has actually devalued the resulting output.

Then again, it kind of makes sense. When using film media, processing and the actual film itself were relatively expensive. There was an intrinsic value to the whole process of taking pictures and film or video.

You certainly didn’t indiscriminately just snap away without any thought as to the cost of the film, or missing something important while you changed a roll. You also never knew exactly what images, expressions, emotions, etc. were going to be frozen in time forever. There was an excited expectation when picking up developed photos to finally see just what was captured.

Film reels captured both the essence and emotion of a scene

Film reels and early video tapes were not cheap, nor was the equipment. Anyone who took footage was looked at with amazement. Again, until you viewed the footage, which usually involved a group of people, you never knew what to expect.

So what’s the situation today? People have Flip cameras, cell phones which take video, and 1TB hard drives at their disposal. We record way more of our lives than ever before, from the mundane to the critical. We also have much easier ways to share our media. We can upload our memories to a site, send out an email notification and forget about them. The lack of any cost to record (or sometimes even to share) these memories contributes to the lower value.

The web has been used by most people for well over 10 years and we are still struggling to use it other than as a substitute for other methods (buying books, watching tv, etc.) It is those areas which never previously existed (cloud computing, social networks, etc.) which are transforming society. What about personal media? I believe that we are not only using it like the past (shoot it and stick it in a box/computer), but actually doing a worse job than in the analog era. Why?

Why is it that photo slideshows of people you don’t know are not engaging? Even the best slideshow with great photos, effects and music is missing a key ingredient: history. If you don’t know the subjects, it’s difficult to become personally interested. Think about it: the great effects and Megan Fox couldn’t make up for the lack of a really compelling story in Transformers 2. If you can’t personally connect to the characters, the story won’t engage you.

So what do movies have to do with personal media? My contention is that the main reason personal media has lost its value is because it has become disconnected with the story behind it. When media turns into nothing more than mere images in time, there is little value.

The reason we take photos and video is to tell the story of our life. Photo albums, projector slideshows, and passing stacks of photos are accompanied with personal interaction and storytelling. The images contained are merely backdrops to the who, where, what and why that we really care about. Passing down the oral history from generation to generation is enhanced through the use of media, not replaced by it.

Photo albums can be a great way to tell a story

We’ve taken man’s innate desire to share personal experiences through spoken word and replaced it with a static image on Flickr. Why is it that you don’t rush to view someone’s online gallery when they email you a link to their new album of 75 photos? Is it because you don’t have time or is it because there isn’t a compelling reason (lack of a story). I believe this is why scrapbooking is exploding, even in a digital era.

So how do we rectify this situation and take advantage of the many benefits digital media has to offer? First we need to get back to storytelling. Media contains the story of your life in images. Before shooting photos and video, think about why you are doing so; basically storyboard your history – your movie – in your mind.

In the second part of this article, we’ll explore in more detail how to actually storyboard your media to effectively share the story of your life. For now, look through your photo and video files to really connect with the cast of characters – your family and friends.