Exercise 3.6: The Memory of Photography

Wow! Just when I thought it couldn't get any more difficult. I was grateful for the warning about the complexity of that essay in the course notes though.

Once again, I had a very hard time reading that but I'm not going to take anymore precious time on it to be honest. I couldnt find the essay at the address in the course notes but a google search did lead me to
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17540763.2010.499609#.U2-LicbG51M, where I was able to read the essay.

I think the main focus of Bate's essay is whether photographs compliment or exploit out own memories. Bate refers to the photograph as a 'time machine' in the opening paragraphs and thinking about it, you can see why he would make this comparison. Why do we take photos if not to remember something? They are, as Bate says, a way of recollecting a memory of a person, object or place.
But he also questions whether the photograph actually alters our natural memory of what we are seeing in the photograph. I think this point is relative as when you see a photograph, you are immediately reminded of what has been 'documented'. There may have been other aspects of that experience that the natural memory has forgotten and the photo only shows you what is there, so you have to remember that part alone.
I noted down a quote as I was reading;
"development of public spaces as literal memory sites" I was keen to include this in my notes as it kind of refers to the research between the previous exercise and the upcoming assignment. I have seen photographs of the mines in spaces where the collieries once stood yet have now been demolished and I felt it was fitting in directly with this statement. The spaces once occupied by those collieries are now literal memory sites.
Another interesting point from Bate's essay is where he questions whether we trust our own memories. From a personal view, I do trust my own memory but exactly how much can we store in our own memories before the smaller details get forgotten to make way for new memories? I take photos as a form of documentation. Places I have been, people I have known, things I have seen and even more so since the birth of my children. My memory is already dwindling in certain areas in that I cant seem to remember what day it is on occasions so I do like to rely on old photographs to jog those old memories stored at the back of my mind. It doesnt always jog the smallest of details of the memory, but I feel it is a fundamental part of my journey through life, to take photographs as I go along.