What A Photograph Means

In the most basic terms, a photograph is a still image representing a scene and captured on film by a camera, but of course it means a whole lot more than that. The truth is that any photograph can have as many different meanings as there are people who look at it. While a photograph depicting a holiday scene can bring back wonderful memories of the holiday for one person, it can have a different meaning for someone else.

The definition in the first sentence above is – without looking at a dictionary – the most prosaic way of describing what a photograph does. But as soon as you allow yourself to admit that there is more to making a definition than the most basic facts, you must admit that a photograph is more than that. It is a representation of a moment, a time, a bond.

This is why we keep photographs in albums, or frames, or somewhere safe, and look at them years after they were taken. As times move on, we experience different times, different places and friendships, but the photographs remain as a document of that time, and they can have an important part to play in encouraging us to seek out old friends who we haven't spoken to in too long.

Photographs can bring back all sorts of memories – good, bad, important or throwaway – but they are important because when all we have is our memories, they allow us to ensure that those memories are accurate.