Blog Prompt #10 - Photos as Reminders

“All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this - as in other ways - they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it.” ~John Berger


I don't think all photographs exist to remind us of what we forget, although perhaps this was more true when John Berger said it than now, when conceptual photography and image manipulation are both becoming more common among photographers. But I would agree that with most photographs this is the case. At least a recording of something so that we don't forget, if not to remind us of something we have already forgotten. I also agree that a painting is a record of what the painter sees or remembers. Therefore a painting tells us more about the artist than the scene. With a photograph, we see the scene and only sometimes can the photographer record him- or herself along with it.