CDV of hot guy and a few thoughts: we lost something, somewhere

CDV. Private Collection

Circa 1880

Well, what can I state about this one other than the obvious reason why I added him to my collection? I put HOT GUY in the tag and title to attract a larger audience. Conniving!  I do have something of importance to say, and it doesn’t have anything to do with this CDV, or maybe it does because there is no name on this card and it inspired me to share some thoughts I think are worth sharing.

~*~

Blog visitors, please take the time to print out your digitals and put the names of your family and friends on the backs. Who knows, maybe in a hundred years or two, or three, some people will want to know who you were too, what your life was like. It only takes a couple of generations to forget. For example, will Facebook be here in 50, a 100 years from now to still have a record of your photographs? Maybe, maybe not.

I’m guilty as charged. I rely too much on my computer, the ‘Cloud’ and other various online ways to store my photos, and I don’t print nearly as often as I should. I’ve lost so many pictures because my computer crashed, have you?

Like that I lost the only pictures I took of my grandmother and me as an adult. We’d gotten together after being separated for over twenty years. Then my brother lost them too because his computer crashed as well. The horror.

Also, in this age we take selfies and a myriad of candids we upload online thinking it’s always going to be available, yet it all feels ephemeral, intangible. There was a time when taking a picture meant something, and sharing it with others was a meaningful gesture -I’m not talking of the obligatory Christmas family pictures you get in the mail every year. People kept them in boxes as treasured keepsakes and that is why I own this one now, of a person I wish I knew more about. And I see this happening less and less, with more and more people just not printing out their photos.

Maybe this is my melancholic sappy self talking. I could go on further with letters. Who writes heartfelt letters on paper anymore? You had a special feeling when you received one in your hands. The person took the time to write it just for you, took a trip to the post office and mailed it. It truly meant something. I mourn those times. I haven’t received a snail mail letter in almost two decades -bills don’t count although they have an effect all their own. I’m glad I’m old enough to have experienced the pre-digital era.

Another example: in the early 90s -when it was ‘cool’ to own a computer- my brother sent my father a typed up letter he printed out and my father, old timer born in 1937 -he had me so late he could be my grandad- looked at it and was offended to see his son hadn’t written it with his own hands but relied on a printer instead. To him it felt so impersonal he got him on the phone and complained, not without a good dose of sarcastic humor only my father is capable of.

Anyway, all this to say I embrace technology but we’ve lost something somewhere, and things go wrong, and computers do crash. Paper stands the test of time. Food for thought.

Late Saturday night musings. And I thought I’d have nothing to say tonight.

Photographer: Lee Photographer. Ely Block. Elyria, Ohio.