Primary Detectives: Photo Album

by Arely

I viewed an item that was a fat, short book full of black and white photographs. They looked like they had been taken during the 1800s, probably toward the end of it. People didn't smile in the pictures back then and their clothing is totally different. The frame is thick and cracked. It's like the photo album could break at any moment.

The purpose of this item was having a fancy book that prove how important the photographs were to them. The goal would have been to pass on the memories from generation to generation. The pictures are black and white, because they didn't have black and white pictures. Plus, they're all still shots, because cameras were rare and pictures were expensive.

Things have really changed since then. They seemed boring, black and white and serious. Now, we not only have color, but we modify our pictures on the computer. We add our pictures to Facebook and Myspace. The term "photo album" is now an electronic file storage place. Our cameras are tied to us at all times and the quality is better.

I wonder, though, if we lost something. I miss the photo albums. I miss the idea that maybe a picture is still worth a thousand words. Maybe we need to bring back something from the days of the photo albums.