I am sure that we have all, on occasion, visited someone's beautiful house and marveled at how perfect it was. Fabulous decor, plush furnishings, expensive fabrics, not a thing out of place. But it could have belonged to anyone, or been a show house in a magazine. Everything was lovely, perhaps expensive but it could have been done by someone with a good eye for interior design rather than an emotional investment in the place.
Turning a house into a home means introducing personal touches. Shells that were found on a beach, a bowl made by one of the children, finger paintings stuck on the fridge door. These are the touches that make all the difference, that make a house a home, and the lovely thing is that these items come loaded with memories. As you walk around a home these are often the items that people want to talk about, discover who made them, where they came from, what's the story.
Photographs can be an important part of this emotional investment in our home, because, wherever we live we can take those photographs with us. The fact that they are portable means that we can set up home and feel settled once our photographs are unpacked. They immediately stamp our identity on a place.
Whether they be amateur or professional our photographs are a pictorial log of our life and the lives of those who are important to us. They can remind us of happy times long forgotten, people no longer with us, and even motivate us to take charge of ourselves and do something positive like lose weight or freshen up our image.
Amateur photographs are fun because they are in the moment, taken at a random point in time. They are often natural, sometimes awkwardly posed and many of us have albums or packets of photographs in drawers or downloaded onto our computer. Sometimes the fact that half a head is missing or some unknown person is in the corner adds to the amusement factor of the picture.
Professional photographs are often taken at specific times in our lives, to record a main event, like a wedding, new baby's birth, anniversary. Often when a new family is formed, parents and step children, part of the official recognition process is to commission a new family photograph. It is often an important part of recognising the new family's status as a unit.
The professional photographs are often the ones that are beautifully framed and hung on the walls or are stood on surfaces to regularly make us smile. They are often a focal point in a room, drawing the eye and making the room a comfortable family place. They mark the people and places that have a special significance to the people in that home.
People are often drawn to the photographs when they first enter a room. Many people will pick photographs up and enjoy looking at the fashions, working out who the different people are. It is often fascinating to hear the stories attached to the photographs, who the people are, why the picture was taken, and the stories often prompt memories of earlier times and people who once featured in our lives.
Charting someones progress through life, the baby and christening pictures, official school photographs, graduation pictures and then wedding and subsequent anniversary photographs can be fascinating journey through someone's life. All monitored through the lens of a camera.
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