Don’t let your photos grow up to be .jpegs

Most of us grew up in the days of film cameras and hand-held video cameras. A time when the street lights determined when you needed to be home for dinner, a time when you’d hover, silently, on the other end of the landline while you heard your sibling talk to their crush.

We only have a handful of photos from that time. Grainy, hyper-exposed images with crooked horizon lines and a half-blinking Grandad. But oh, aren’t they precious?

Thankfully, tech has advanced so much that we no longer have to worry about the price per image. We can stand in front of a sunset and take 100 shots for free. As the nieces and nephews run along the beach we can be that snap happy relative capturing every damn step. As the friend flips over their chair after one two many beers we can be there, capturing the fall.

If you’re anything like me, you probably have tens of thousands of images like these in the Cloud, mixed in with screenshots and accidental selfies and recordings of feet walking along the footpath. Have you ever looked through them? Do you even remember the login to that iCloud account?

Today we’re writing to challenge you to do something different with your photos. To stop them growing up to be nothing but jpegs. Print out your favourite ones from the year and throw them into an album. Stick them into a journal and write a few lines about the day, about the people you were with and held tight.

These are the kinds of albums we’re inheriting from our grandparents now, and maybe even our parents. But what tangible memories will be left to the next generation, from us? Will they run their fingers across our scrawled handwriting and romanticise about our life too? Instagram doesn’t have the same air about it.