Camera as time machine!

[MrAndMrsIzzy]

Not sure when or where I got this from but I remember reading it.  Basically it went something like this.

A camera is a time machine, in the sense that it can capture an image that exists at a specific instant and a specific point in time and space, freeze and store it, for later retrieval and transfer to a more permanent facility, where it can be viewed, over and over again. 

[samstevens]

It can also be a timeless machine.

[marceppy]

More of a window into the past and present, as it was then and how it is now, forever old and forever new, time is always and never the same.  Just a wonderful topic that photography can be used to see into all aspects of life.  I once worked on a photographic project to document time lapse over landscapes and interpret the changes.  Here is a link to some of the images: It was published in the early 1980’s .. 

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67334403

[MrAndMrsIzzy]

22 hours ago, marceppy said:

More of a window into the past and present, as it was then and how it is now, 

 

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/67334403

That's good!  Window rather than machine.  Better terminology!!

Aside from that.  Dprev!  Used to post there.  Thought it was no more!  What happened?

[pavel_l.]

Or "Love machine", as described one intellectual over glass of wine. She draw the parallel between photography and rape, because photography strips virginity from event  which would not be exposed/documented without photograph. (my sarcasm, of course.)

[inoneeye]

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.”
– Dorothea Lange

As the camera may freeze a moment the photographer’s expression or the viewer’s reaction may unfreeze the moment. 

Edited May 5 by inoneeye

[hapien]

I don´t have copy of Michael Langleys photography book right here, but something along those words might have been in it

[samstevens]

11 hours ago, inoneeye said:

As the camera may freeze a moment the photographer’s expression or the viewer’s reaction may unfreeze the moment.

+1
Thanks for thawing things out.

[marceppy]

I guess the camera is the machine or tool (all kinds).  The image captures the moment (a reflection in time?).  I can think of several applications such as slow time lapse (like a bud to flower) or high speed images that can show the movement of a bullet passing through an egg.  Astronomers capture images that may have occurred billions of "light" years ago.  Physicist look at subatomic particles.  Medical applications are beyond my knowledge.   

[kmac]

Cameras do a good job of recording aging. I have photos of my mum, one when she was 1 year old (studio shot), one when she was 18 (also a studio shot), and one when she was 91, (taken with my newly acquired Ebay Zeiss Ikonta 532/2). Mum is now departed and of course there are plenty of other shots of her, but those three shots are the ones I treasure. I currently have the one when she was 18 side-by-side with the one when she was 91 displayed on my roll top desk, to remind me of my mortality.

Edited May 6 by kmac

[Sandy Vongries]

I have film going back to the '50's some of which is archived in the town where I was raised at their request.  Bygone days like a fly in amber.  At least till the lights go out!

[JDMvW]

An image stirs other sensory memories- smells, tastes, the heat of the sun  on your face, .....

Roma 1973

[inoneeye]

That’s a old and a fresh thought JD.🥂

Edited May 6 by inoneeye

[Ricochetrider]

a recording device storing memories, captured on a certain day preserving my specific moment, but the photos may also ignite others' memories of their personal moments, unrelated to my own?