Picture Karma

Just taking a little break from posting party pics to discuss photographs in general. I have recently been involved in different conversations about photos and the energy or lack thereof that is implied when capturing a person's image on film. Some people I know don't think that you should ever discard a person's photo, because it contains part of their soul and would be bad karma. Other people I know want me to throw away their pictures, because they don't want an image that they don't like floating around for mass viewing. Among other things, I do have a lot of trouble discarding photos of people. I guess I feel a little like I'm throwing the person or the experience away. I also know someone who would say that it is good and theraputic to cleanse your life of any reminder or negative energy associated with someone in a picture. This person believes that pictures trap energy, so you can free the negative energy by burning or otherwise respectfully discarding of the picture. I guess that answers the question about what to do with pictures of ex-boyfriends/girlfriends and other people that have departed your life under not so great circumstances. I don't know that I subscribe to any of these ideas. I look at pictures as a record of moments in time that you can never capture again. To destroy a picture erases that moment that has helped bring you to the present. So, maybe you aren't particularly fond of the person pictured anymore, but it is still a memory that is worth having. Pictures are the story of my life: the good, the bad and the ugly. They speak volumes without words. There have been times that I have thrown away pictures from the past, because there just didn't seem to be a reason to have them anymore or they just reminded me too much of painful times. Looking back, I'm not sure if that was the right thing to do, because now I have censored my story. I took out pieces that I didn't like or that I didn't think were important anymore. I know that it drives everyone nuts that I have a camera in their face every time they turn around, but it is so important to me to hold my memories in albums. I have found so much solace and hope in my pictures. They showed me that happiness and love existed before and would exist again. They show me the good times when all I can remember are the bad. There is so much that is awful in the world that I need these 4x6 reminders to ground me and say, "Look what you have. It's not really that bad". So, next time I put a camera in your face just smile and deal with it! I'm capturing the moment just the way it is.