Practicing Mindful Photography

“Wait, wait! Let me get a picture!” I say as I pull out my phone. My nieces are playing a game and I want to preserve the moment in my memory. But how much are we really committing to memory when we spend most of our time behind the lens of a camera or iPhone? In the selfie-crazed society we find ourselves in, we may be doing more harm than good to our long-term memory by snapping away our most precious moments.
According to psychologist Linda Henkel from the Fairfield University in Connecticut, we are less likely to commit to memory the events we photograph or film because we are outsourcing that memory to our digital objects. Henkel sent groups of students to her university’s art museum and told them to observe several pieces of art, then had them return and use cameras to photograph others. After the students returned, she gave them a memory test. The students could recall specific details about the pieces they had observed, but not the pieces they had photographed.
When quizzed over pieces they observed, students could recall the colors or shapes in the paintings. When quizzed over pieces they photographed, they couldn’t remember details such as whether a sculpture was wearing a hat or which way the arms were positioned.
“As soon as you hit ‘click’ on that camera, it’s as if you’ve outsourced your memory,” says Henkel. “Any time we… count on these external memory devices, we’re taking away from the kind of mental cognitive processing that might help us actually remember that stuff on our own.” While these pictures are treasures we can print out and frame, if we are not conscious about our photographing, we can risk allowing our brains to “forget” the details of these events since we are relying on our cameras to do the remembering for us.
I find myself in this very situation–spending birthday parties and family vacations snapping away to preserve the memories of here and now–then I transfer the photos to my computer and quickly forget about them. When I view the pictures months or years later, I can sort-of recall the occasion and surrounding details, but find myself remembering it through the viewfinder of my camera rather than in full, technicolor memory. This isn’t to say I will stop taking photos, but will make a greater effort in the future to practice mindful photography–committing to memory the sounds, smells, and circumstances of each event rather than relying on my camera to make memories for me.

Melissa Bond is the Agent for Fine Arts at the Whitley County Cooperative Extension Service. For more information about upcoming programs and events, call 606-549-7373, visit facebook.com/whitleycountyfinearts or email Melissa.bond@uky.edu