all photographs are there to remind us what we forget--as in other way--they are the opposite of paintings. paintings record what the painter remembers. because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at t.- john berger, b. 1926

as i was looking for a quote for today's post, i came across the above quote above and i found it interesting because one of things that i often think about is a photograph's role in history. political history. family history. whatever history.

digital cameras and even photoshop play such a role in today's photography. is the photograph that we're seeing what was truly captured on camera? chances are probably not. and then you see the news photographs, where it's obvious that they did a shitty photoshop job. even in the most recent issue of W magazine, there was a spread of photographs of angelina jolie was shared, taken by none other than brad pitt. the photos looked like film and were awesome (you should check out the magazine) but the thought crossed my mind--is that how they came out of the camera? was the final presented image what brad had intended. my guess is that it's not. my guess is that the exposure was corrected and the images were cropped, some to a greater extent than others. but i tell you, the images make brad pitt look like a damn great photographer. Â

our photographs of today will be shared with our generations of tomorrow, yet we are deciding in a huge way, what is presented to our generations. the question is, will it be an accurate presentation.

for example--i could put things in a photo that were never really there? i could make a person look 10 pounds thinner and 10 years younger or even remove all wrinkles all together. i could change the color of someone's shirt (which i actually did for the cover of military spouse magazine). and how many times do we delete photos we've taken of our family and friends just because we didn't like it (not because it was a grossly bad photograph). we keep the ones we choose to keep. we are choosing and creating what we share. only the good ones? only the ones where X looks good? what has happened to sharing the reality of the every day as it actually happened? as i share these thoughts, i'm guilty of this myself.

and i'm sure to some extent, the purging of bad photographs happened in the past, with film cameras, but my guess is that it didn't happen nearly as much and one purged for different reasons (at least i know that's how it was for me). of course, we didn't take as many photographs with film cameras either.

i don't know. i just think that our photographs of today could in some way be altering our history of tomorrow instead of representing things as they actually were. what do you think?

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and here's to hope for tomorrow.

what a day yesterday was! we are living through quite the news stories, aren't we?! history in the making. i was excited for obama and sad for mccain. i'm kind of wimpy that way, for anyone that publicly loses. obama is entering office at a tough time--let's hope that he remains as strong and inspiring as he is today. he's offered us dreams of hope and change; now lets see him put those dreams into action and move america in a positive direction. what a year this next year is going to be.

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we got to speak with steve the other day and he is safe and doing well. he's extremely busy but enjoying his time over there. and i'm happy that he is. i mean if he has to deploy, he might as well be enjoying himself. Â for those of you that don't know, steve is an explosive ordnance disposal officer and is currently deployed in iraq.

us...well, it depends on the day you ask me. many days, i would tell you that we're doing great. but then some days, i feel overwhelmed, drained and frustrated having to do everything by myself. the past couple of days have been the latter. yesterday was one of those days that i fussed at my kids too much and was mad at myself that i did. but this morning, i woke up energized for a better day.

here's an unclassified shot of steve, in iraq, at their change of command ceremony (obviously this is not a photo i took). Â the guys that steve's group is replacing had been there for 15 long months. Â i have it good, with steve ONLY being gone seven months.