Worth A Thousand Words
Not all memories we keep are good. We naturally fear the ones we associate with negativity and try to bury them in the back of our minds. Sometimes some memories aren’t even bad but we think they are. Potte is no different from this, and perhaps generalizes much of her father’s photography as negative ones that would only remind her of his death. Imagine her surprise that when she finally sees the photos after all these years, and is instead reminded of so many good things she had tucked away in her fear of remembering her father’s death. We tend to fear the bad so much that the good things get lost in the mix of our tumultuous emotions and memories. Potte learned today that the bad things go alongside the good, and we can’t have one without the other. She buried her father deep in her memories only to be reminded that even in his death, the good things they had in life will never change, nor will they ever go away. On that day she rediscovered the father she had buried not only in a grave, but in her past.
Photography then would be both the bridge that connects her to her hometown and to her father. The last thing her father left for her, aside from his photos, was his camera where everlasting memories were created and layered on film. She makes his hobby her own, considering that she also has an interest in photography. The photos are both mysterious yet comforting to her, reminding her of days gone by but also inspiring curiosity in her to learn more about the world she once shared with her family. The places and the faces in the photos make her want to learn about the world she had shut herself off from when her father died. She thinks herself now ready to return and learn about the world her father lived in, starting with the town of Takehara where she had spent much of her childhood. With a supportive family behind her she goes off the find the town she only remembers in her memories and her fathers photographs.
A place she hopes to capture herself, with her father’s old camera.
Photographs so easily evoke from us even the deepest and oldest of memories. We humans have highly evolved visual and memory capabilities, and even when we think we’ve moved on and forgotten, even the slightest reminder can easily make us remember things we thought we’ve forgotten. The art of capturing these places, these moments, began all the way when we humans learned to draw art on caves, and now we have the ability to capture them as they are on film. On the fly we can capture these moments as they are, everyday, wherever and whenever we see them. Their ability to evoke so many human memories and emotions might be unparalleled.
Worth a thousand words after all.