I believe we care about photography to maintain a hold of the past and satisfy the immense curiosities we have. I believe we care for photography in order to hold it almost sacred, and to preserve the goals and have it serve its purpose to us. The more we care for photography, the more we can utilize it for whatever means we need. The specific photo I will be looking at is that of Christian Boltanski, discussed as picture number five of our lecture 15, accompanied by the text and ideas of Marianne Hirsch’s Past Lives and the use of post-memory. To me, having connections and knowledge of the past of my family is crucial to me. It’s helped me build my identity. Because I was adopted from South Korea at a young age, I’ve always struggled with finding what “heritage” really means to me because I have zero ties with any South Korean culture. This is particularly why I wanted to select this prompt and essay, because I think the feeling of the post-memory aesthetic is familiar to what I felt when it came to looking at older family photos. While I may not feel the emotions or grief in the same way as those from the Holocaust did while looking at their photographs, I used to feel a sense of loss and absence looking at pictures of myself as a child. It was like a part of my identity went missing even though I’ve never met that side of myself. Simultaneously, I felt that sense of rebirth and rebuilding because even though I didn’t experience the culture I was “meant” to have, I got to experience a whole new one, and I am now able to share my experiences growing up in a diverse family. 

Without photographs, we have no means of looking back to see the form of who we are. The countless family scrapbooks we have stored away collecting dust, rarely ever opened or used, hold memories of every family gathering. Of every child taking their first step, or first food they ate, or first time at the zoo. We may have a slight recollection that the event happened, but as our memory starts to blur moments together, how can we remember the explicit details besides through a photograph? We need to care about the feelings we receive from photos because I believe emotions are what make the physical, tangible. It brings it close to us. As discussed in lecture 15, I would argue that the eerie photograph I selected to analyze makes it difficult to “care” as much about the people especially since context is lacking. These faces are pulled and we receive no indication of who they are, and instead, are forced to create a background that caters to what we believe, and we can only speculate so much. As Hirsch says on page 267: “We mourn people in the photographs because we recognize them, but this identification remains at a distance marked by incomprehension, anger, and rage. They may be like us, but they are not us: they are visibly ghosts and shadows.” These faces could be anyone; they look the same as us. This can make it hard to care about the feelings of the people felt within the photos, as much connection to us is stripped away in that particular art arrangement. But I believe the nature of seeing real humans shows us that they existed through experiences we hadn’t. We still care because the human that once was, is sitting behind the light, happy or not. 

Old photographs with fraying edges are my favorite to look at. My grandparents took me in their arms as if I was blood-related, and therefore any of their memories and experiences will be handled with utmost care because they meant the world to me. There seems to be an unwritten responsibility that we have, to care for and preserve the photographs we come across, as one of its many purposes is a means of documenting a time period we simply didn’t exist in. It would be reckless to see the flames rise as we burn the physical records that connect people to the earth we live on. That is why the preservation of photographs is so crucial to us. It provides us with a means of connection. Boltanski’s work of art preserves those faces. I believe there is something much deeper in the fact that the faces are slightly obscured so that they aren’t entirely able to be identified, yet the light is still on them. It feels intentional, in that even though these particular students used in this arrangement weren’t in the Holocaust, for many of the victims we don’t have a means of fully identifying their stories or backgrounds. They’re in the spotlight - just like how during the Holocaust and even as we look back in history, they are under watch by the eyes of many, and they will only ever be looked upon as a community torn apart. Their own individual stories and identities seemingly vanish under the light of a horrific tragedy that occurred. Whether or not this was Boltanski’s intention, it was a takeaway I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. We need to preserve images because without them, what records do we have of our former selves? I think if anything the photograph is a testament that it is possible to feel emotions and empathy even for people that weren’t actually in a bad situation where the sense of “home” no longer exists. It’s almost as if we create empathy in our minds through assumptions. The post-memory here is clear, especially to the communities who are trying to recreate the sense of who they are. It’s the mourning of the loss but the rebuilding that shines through. 

Bringing these ideas into modern means of communication and connection such as social media creates an interesting outlook. Social media houses our profiles - these pictures we put on the internet are there to stay forever, and as long as we have access to the internet, we’ll have access to these moments in time. Hirsch makes an interesting point on page 267: “They are and remain other, emanations from another time and space. They are clearly in another world from ours, and yet they are uncannily familiar”. Did the people in my chosen photograph think people would be speculating about them even to this day? This sparks many questions about the future of history through photography and what will come to be, as our connections are put online for the world to see forever. Will future generations and populations look at us as “familiar,” as more of our lives are put on the internet? Is the future that much different looking? Because it’s not just photographs we have, it’s individual blurbs of thoughts, videos, and moments. Some people have put their entire lives online; future generations will see exactly who they are down to their individual quirks. We are at a unique point in history where it will be even easier to connect to “us in the present”: even though we may be growing older every day, our younger forms are vastly available.

We need to care about photography because if we don’t there is no standard. It helps us connect to people we don’t remember. I barely remember my grandparents but seeing younger photos of them makes me wish I could speak to them then. To learn about the tragedies my grandfather saw in the war. It no longer matters to me that I wasn’t born here - my connections and my memories are associated here and this is my place. I know that I come from a place called South Korea, but my traditions are formulated around what I have. I can confidently say I no longer get a feeling of loss and absence: I’m grateful for the life I have here. And I’m even more grateful I get to experience it all.