How do you keep in touch with your friends and family when you are far apart? How do you tell them about what you are doing? How do you celebrate family events?
Chances are it will be through occasional or regular calls; perhaps you keep them updated through social media or on messaging services.
Once upon time it might have been with regular letters home and greetings cards at Christmas, birthdays and holidays. This change is also reflected in how we use and consume photographs.
The changing nature of photography
How many photographs do you see everyday printed out?
The way we view and use photographs has changed.
Once upon a time we could only see them when they were printed out. In some forms, the daguerreotype, each photograph was a unique item. The whole process of making a photograph was complex and time consuming so each one was important.
The only way we could send images was to print them out and give them to people. We either had to be with the person or we would have to put them in the post, either as a postcard or in an envelope, maybe even mounted as a gift. They became possessions, objects that people would carry with them.
Photographs have become ubiquitous. Many of us carry cameras with us all the time now. But the images have become more transient as we view them on computer screens or phones. We will see them for a while and then they will fade away
Keeping in touch has changed
An old fashioned greetings card is slower but it creates a physical connection.
This change in how we view photographs is very obvious in how we share our experiences and celebrate significant events. Once we would have carefully (or otherwise) chosen a card for them, written a message inside, sealed it into an envelope, written their address on the front, stuck a stamp on the top. Then we would have walked to a local post box. Within a day or two, our friend or family member would have received the card.
Now we’re likely to send an all singing, all dancing animated GIF that they receive instantaneously.
But I am here to praise the greetings card, not to bury it.
There is something so much more physical about a greetings card. This is particularly the case if there are so many miles between the sender and the recipient and they only see each other on a few occasions.
Sending a card to someone else is letting go of something you have held so that someone else can hold it. It creates a physical connection between you.
A video or phone call offers immediacy for a while. You feel you are with the other person, chatting to them as if you were in the same room. Holding a card that someone has sent you can have a similar feeling. The object in your hands was a little while ago held by someone else who cares for you. It was physically in their presence and now it has become a part of you.
Check the link at the bottom of this post to purchase
The Christmas Card
Christmas is still the time for sending cards
Once upon a time, the greetings card was ubiquitous, especially at this time of year as we approach the festive season.
I remember as a child all the cards along the mantelpiece, some of them perhaps given more prominence than others. And if there were far too many for the shelves, others would be strung up along the walls.
Christmas remains the most popular time to send physical cards. According to Hallmark, approximately 1.3 billion in the United States each year, and according to the Royal Mail, about 150 million in the UK. However, fewer cards are being sent these days. Instead we tend to send instant messages to each other.
When we do send Christmas cards, though, they are more likely to be personalised. Something more unique. Something that might be kept by the recipient.
Perhaps we still recognise that we need that physical connection especially when we are miles apart. We feel that connection should be uniquely ours. We are returning to the time when we used to send cards (maybe even letters) in the post, and the recipient would hold on to them and treasure them?
It is because of my passionate belief in this notion that I create a range of Christmas cards based upon my photographs. I send them out to all my friends and family members.
They are also available to purchase here.
If you are looking to make a physical connection with your family and friends, what better way than to send them an actual card with your own writing in it? And if you are looking for a unique Christmas card then check out the link for some of the cards I have produced.
If you are quick there is still a bit of time to get them before Christmas.
https://www.numonday.com/shop/stephen-taylor-photography
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