Photograph

Photographs are the truest keepers of memories, the ones that stop time. They are the silent witnesses of the past. Memories, with all their sounds, scents and colors, are vivid enough to fit into a single frame. No matter how fast or how quickly the years go by, the moment you look at that photograph, you return to the instant it was taken. For a moment, everything suddenly appears before your eyes. Those of the Now who are still alive look at photographs of those who are no longer here, trying to hear their voices. Or some, never aware at the time of how happy they were, pick it up like a dried rose forgotten between the pages of a book. Looking at it, they realize how happy they were in those days gone by, sadly only years later.

Some moments have no photograph. That is exactly what makes them special and meaningful: you are so deeply in the Now that taking a photo never even crosses your mind. Such moments are usually the happiest ones. But birthdays, holidays, special occasions, graduations, weddings... these are the exceptions, because they have albums. And what about childhood photos? Without them, how would we ever remember what kind of child we were? How lucky we are to have immortal memories of our childhood.

New beginnings, partings, surprises and disappointments have no photographs either, yet those scenes endure longer than even the sharpest picture. Some goodbyes have no photograph you can hold in your hands, but because your mind refuses to accept that goodbye, it photographs every last sentence of it into its own archive. Some words have no photograph you can hold, but hearing them was so heavy that, even years later, they remind you of themselves now and then, as if they were spoken only yesterday. For the heart, the most painful photograph of all is hurt.

Some moments don't need a photograph. When you feel loving glances with your heart, when every tender gesture caresses your soul, the moments you share with people who rejoice even more than you when you're happy and grieve with you when you're sad are moments you never forget, so you never need to remember them.

So, truly, which photographs do we look at the longest?
And which moments without a photograph remind us of themselves more often than the ones that have one?