The Real Luxury of Photography
I was talking to my parents the other day. My mum only has a handful of photos from her childhood — printed, weathered, all of them posed “smile at the camera” shots with her siblings.
My dad has two… just two photos of himself under the age of 10. Both staring straight at the camera, alone, in his school uniform. Neither of them has any childhood photos with their parents, not one! (can you imagine that!). I suppose that was just the norm back then.
And it made me realise how incredibly lucky we are to be living in a time where we can capture everything – and so easily! Where family photos can be about connection, play, and real moments rather than posed and stiff smiles. Where you can freeze the details that will mean everything in 20, 30, 50 years.
It really made me think.
When people call photography a luxury now, they’re usually referring to the cost, but the real luxury is simply that we get to have it at all. That we live in a time where memories can be preserved, documented, held onto.
Imagine yourself 20 or 30 years from now. Sitting quietly, thinking back to the days when little feet followed you everywhere. When your name was called a hundred times a day. When you were needed around the clock. When your arms were full, and your heart even fuller.
What moment would you want to look back on? Tiny hands wrapped around yours? The loud, messy, chaotic reality of life with young children? Or the quiet, fleeting moments in between?
When the memories start to blur, photographs bring them back into focus.
Photography can feel like an investment… but it’s one that keeps giving long after the moment has passed — and one you can never get back once it’s missed.
