Printed photographs are powerful. Flipping through an album will stir so many emotions. The nostalgia, the happiness, even some sadness over the time that has passed.
Have you experienced going through old photos with your parents? They can go back to that very moment in the photo and remember all the details of that day. They can tell the story behind your giant smile or a big scrape on your knee. At some point they’ll look up at you in complete disbelief at how fast time has gone. The photographs have the power to freeze a moment and help you relive it again and again.
We are told that our digital footprints are for EVER. This may very well be so if you are an intelligence officer with special set of skills, but how true is this really for most of us, the regular people? How many photos have we lost to a broken phone or to a crashed computer? How many of our precious memories are just sitting on a USB in a random drawer or in an obscure folder of a computer? Do we even remember all the photos we used to have? And if so, do we know which device they are stored at? I couldn’t even track down all the photos of my own wedding.
Print your photographs for yourself AND for your children. Studies have proven that surrounding children with photos of their families and themselves helps them with their self-esteem and feeling of belonging. Photographs have the power to remind us what matters the most to us and to make us smile even on the gloomiest of days. They are therapeutic. They are real and readily accessible unlike digital images forgotten in the maze of our devices.