Why am I an advocate for printed photos?

The world is analogue or digital

Is there still a place for printed photos? The world is divided into two sides digital and analogue. The digital world is fast paced bright flashy colourful, but quite often quickly forgotten. Whereas the analogue world is slower paced. It’s bright and it’s colourful but you take more time to look at things and explore things in the analogue world. A sprint for the bus, or a leisurely walk through the park.

A previous life

In my previous life as a sign designer, I started there with a pencil a piece of paper and a rubber. Everything was drawn by hand with care and precision, every line was created by hand and it was fun. You took pride and pleasure in your work, making sure that all the lines were smooth and consistent. Then the digital world came along. The jobs got quicker and easier but ultimately the enjoyment was missing, the joy of picking up a pencil and creating lost. Even now I often find myself picking up my pencils one of my sketchbooks and just taking some time to do some sketching and drawing in the analogue world just to get away from screens and away from the fast pace.

Digital world

When it comes to photos, the division between the digital and the analogue world is even more noticeable. I think we’ve all got our phones chock full of photos we’ve taken or been sent, or in files and folders scattered all over our computers. But ultimately how often do we actually look at those photos actually spend time really looking at those photos. Yes they’re easy to send across the Internet to friends and family, but then forgotten. Our favourite photos become lost in the 100’s or 1000’s of random clicks with our phone cameras. I think for the majority of us with digital photos, we’re looking at them on phones, on those small screens where we have to zoom in scroll around to actually see the full image. Then we scroll on. 

Analogue world

But now if you take that same image and have it printed out. You now have that image hanging on the wall, or in a frame on your desk. A physical object that you can look at, you can touch. You can enjoy the full image without having to zoom and scroll around because you can see the whole thing. I speak from experience when I say I spend more time to actually look at, and explore a photo that’s printed than one that’s on my phone screen, or a computer screen. I find myself looking around the looking at looking at the colours and the details. In a previous blog I said when you print the photos on fine art paper, you get a texture and a real depth to the colours. You have an image that is very tactile while still being visual.

Printed photos, final thoughts

I honestly believe that printed photos invoke more emotion, and memories than one that you see on your screen. I don’t know if it’s because you can touch and hold image or because you can spend time just gazing at it. Fully exploring the image without needing to zoom and scroll, or having the screen lock. When viewing a printed image we slow down, we are actually in the moment. It’s a moment that we can come back to time and time again without having to search for it. In fact it’s a moment, a photo of your pup that you see every time you walk into your lounge. That’s why I truly believe that photos need to be printed to be properly appreciated.