Nostalgia: It does the soul good.

So, as if it hasn’t been SO OBVIOUS, I’m kind of a nostalgia fiend. I am in love, obsessed, totally infatuated with the days gone by. Even the days I wasn’t actually alive for. Especially those days. What a strange phenomenon, to feel nostalgic about an era that had come and gone before I was even born, huh? I actually wrote my senior rhetoric paper on this topic (HATED that class, but strangely ended up LOVING this project… probably because I got to pick something to write about that I’m actually interested in). I was scrambling around, literally an hour before I was supposed to submit my topic ’cause that’s how I roll, and I just started thinking about The Wonder Years. Favorite show of all time, hands down. I have such good memories of watching that show with my family, back in the good ole days of Nick at Nite Block Party Summers, and I am fascinated by how it makes me feel SO nostalgic, not just about my own childhood, but about the 60s in general. From the Super 8mm film that shows kids playing football and a family cooking out during the credits, to the Arnolds’ sunny yellow kitchen, to the amazing music and the fashion, to just the way people LIVED in general…. the neighborhoods where kids played outside at nighttime instead of being glued to video games, the family dinners, all of it. The simple times, you know? 

So in this paper I researched and explored how people in power have used nostalgic rhetoric to create a common public memory and experience and influence the attitudes and behaviors of the people. The stuff I read on this was absolutely fascinating, and it really made me question my own feelings about my “past,” real or imagined. I had never really thought about my love for all things old and retro from a serious academic and analytic perspective before, and it made me realize that, in many ways, I find immense comfort and happiness in my nostalgia. And when I’m comfortable and happy, I don’t think about bad things. It’s a lot easier to overlook all the problems in the world. And the “simpler times” I yearn for weren’t actually so simple. Behind the yellow kitchens and the flouncy skirts and “I Wanna Hold Your Hand” was war, racism, sexism, and all sorts of other social ills. But for the most part, that period of time isn’t remembered for the bad things. Just the good. The “simple.” Our hindsight is rose-tinted. Anyway, I went into a LOT more detail in the paper, obviously, but the gist is that nostalgia, and nostalgic rhetoric, can be used for good and bad. It’s happy. It’s your memories. But it can also be manipulated by politicians, pastors, presidents, and all sorts of other people to soothe the public into almost a numbing peace so as to avoid revolt and revolution. Better to look to the past than to the future. That sort of thing. 

But it doesn’t change how I feel about my beloved nostalgia. Doesn’t change my obsession with retro iconography… the VW buses, the Beatles, the high-waisted full skirts, the soda shops, the music, the James Dean, the Eames chairs, evvvveeeerrything. 

One thing I found in my research that I have found to be SO TRUE the past six months or so is that in times of economic and political turmoil, you see retro everywhere. You can look at the runways and see that people are looking to the good ole days when they feel stressed out about losing their jobs or not being able to pay rent or cutting back or whatever. Look at design. Look at advertisements. Listen to music. It’s all around. Retro is BACK, BABY! Too bad it takes a recession to pull it out of hiding. 

And now, what does this have to do with photography? Well, a lot actually, in my personal opinion. It seems to me that now, in this digital age, where you can do SO MUCH in camera and in Photoshop, there has been a movement toward technical perfection. Is there anything wrong with that? Well, no. A lot of the photographers I admire the most are technical perfectionists. But I learning that I am not. I’ve spent hours upon hours poring over forums, testing different lenses, getting advice about how to get my images to be sharper, brighter, more…. perfect. Like the pros, you know? But quite honestly, though I definitely want to keep pushing myself to master the technical stuff, I don’t want every image I take to be technically perfect. I want them to be full of life and emotion. I want them to be dynamic and energetic. And you can’t always plan and execute every shot to be this way. You just can’t. I’m so drawn to the drama and mystery of film… I love what comes out of the Duaflexes and the Holgas and the Dianas. Amazing what a cheap toy camera can produce, really. And I love the anticipation of waiting for film to develop. You can’t get instant feedback from film cameras, and you have no idea half the time if you “nailed” the shot or not. It’s so fun to get those images back and see them for the first time, not on a computer screen, but in your hand. Printed out. Like photography USED to be. 

Don’t get me wrong. I’m so thankful for the digital age, because it has drastically lowered the barriers of entry to young lil photographers like me. I could never have afforded to get this started had it been 20 or so years ago. And it IS so much easier to learn when you have that instant feedback with a digital camera. And the Internet! I mean, how could I do this without the Internet? 

Nevertheless, I want a balance. I want to keep up with the trends and the technological developments. I want to be able to nail exposure and focus and lighting every single time. I do. But I also want to keep a little bit of the mystery and the nostalgia around. I want the dreamy unpredictability that my Diana churns out. And you know something? I think a lot of other people can definitely appreciate that. At least they should, if the recession theory is accurate, huh? :) 

And along these lines, Kodak announced yesterday that they’re discontinuing the iconic Kodachrome film. Yep, the same kind Paul Simon begged his mama not to take away. They gave us those nice bright colors, they gave us the greens of summers, made you think all the world’s a sunny day. And now, they’re taking it away. Between that and the recent demise of Polaroid film, I can’t help but feel that the end of an era is nearing. And it makes me so sad. And it’s all gonna be so darn expensive because it’ll be considered antique before long. I’m already bummed about how expensive Super 8 filming is to get into. Sad day. 

But anyway. Stepping off my soap box now. 

On an unrelated note, I just discovered a few days ago that we have a cherry tree in our backyard! How awesome is that! I picked a whole bowl full of ‘em, and they are deee-licious.

And my best friends:

 

Look how happy she is when she comes home from her walks!

And the hot one in this relationship:

Let me just say, blogging is a frickin’ full time job. People who blog every single day make it look so easy. But it ISN’T. I’m going to try to be more diligent about my updates, though. I know I’ve said it a bazillion times, but I’m gonna!