The power of pictures: bringing history to life for future generations
I have spent entirely too much time on social media this past week as we as Minnesotans get our bearings around the death of George Floyd and all that has followed. I can’t get enough information…from who George Floyd was as a person, to the chaos of the riots, to the peaceful protests, to the beautiful outpouring of support from the community who can’t even believe this has happened in OUR Twin Cities.
The images and videos that have been shared have been shocking, sad, scary, beautiful, awe-inspiring…the list goes on. They’ve brought tears to my eyes again and again. I can’t imagine how we would have experienced this whole situation without them. To start with, unless a person was there…
we would have only heard about and not seen the horrific incident that started it all;
we wouldn’t have been able to see with our eyes the devastating fires, the quite frankly scary riots, or the peaceful protests; and,
we wouldn’t have seen the beautiful images of bags and bags of food and supplies delivered to the area, or the people that showed up to help clean up the mess.
Some of the images are incredibly disturbing, but without them helping us to understand the seriousness of this issue, how does change happen? To all those that told this story by capturing those images and sharing them, thank you.
I’m certain that we’ve only seen the beginning of the photos that have been captured over the past week and will be captured as this is not even close to being over. Photos are powerful. They help us to tell the story, and in times like this, I can’t even imagine a world without them.
There has never been a more important time to tell your story. 2020 will be written about in the history books. Someday, your family is going to ask…
What did you do when everything was shut down for almost 3 months?
Where were you when Lake Street was burning?
Did you know anyone that was involved in the protests or called on to help?
What was it like when it was all over?
How will you respond?
I can’t help but think about the stories and pictures that have been shared about events such as the racial tension of the 1960’s or 911. People want to know and learn from those events, especially when it is part of their family’s legacy.
I challenge you to find a way to tell this important story…to somehow take the photos you have taken over the past few months and DO SOMETHING with them. Bring history to life to help your grandchildren and great grandchildren feel the emotion of these events and learn from our mistakes.
Here are 3 ways:
Print your pictures from these last few months (crazy idea, I know, since a lot of people haven’t printed photos since 2005) and put them in an archival album or at minimum, grab an archival box to store them in
Create a digital album and journal your experience. I like Mixbook and Mpix for my DIY’ers
Create a slideshow, but don’t forget to jot down some notes about the photos, or include memory slides within the slideshow
In this day of having a camera in our pocket or purse most of the time, the job of recording history belongs to all of us. We all have a unique perspective, and events like these affect us all in different ways. It’s not enough to take the picture and let it sit on our phones or in the cloud somewhere. We need to tell the story.
I am heartbroken over the events of the past week. I’m personally thinking hard about how I will capture it because I’m committed to telling the story in a way that my family and I can learn from it.
Stay safe everyone!
Holly Corbid is the founder and owner of Capture Your Photos, where we help you to celebrate life, tell stories and touch hearts with your photos and videos. She lives in Stillwater, MN, a suburb of the Twin Cities.
