by Lindy Gamolo

Like most things, memories do not last forever. They fade over time, no matter how hard we try to keep them safe in our minds. To make it worse, we could completely lose them when we’re older and maybe have more time to look back on our lives. Sometimes, what’s left are vague ideas or uncertain feelings they evoke when recalled.

That is one reason why I take photos. Not of myself, but of what I see and feel at that fleeting moment. Photos are printed memories. They’re captured emotions. You can argue that photos are not forever either. They’re just paper and dyes, after all. But still, they’re an extension to the lifespan of the memories stored in our heads. And because of that, I hate losing photos.

Before the days of digital camera, we printed our photos on photo papers to actually see them. I ruined many of mine from moisture in my cheap photo albums. It broke my heart. In trying to salvage the few that remained only partly damaged, I scanned them for digital copies in case I’d completely lose the printed ones, which would be its inevitable demise (moisture eating the photo paper inch by inch and everything).

Then I stumbled on Fotogra.ph and the idea of photobooks. This came after.

And So The Adventure Begins Volume 1 is a compilation of photos I’ve taken. They’re not a show of angles, technicalities and tricks, as I’m no expert of those. They simply show what I saw.

Some pictures were enhanced to give the reader (or viewer?) the closest possible image of the scenery (despite technological advances, cameras can still be so poor in capturing colors). Some were enhanced to achieve the feeling I had as I saw them. If they were altered, they were altered to show truth.

Photobooks are a perfect way of compiling mempries. It’s clutter free, moist-free, space-saving and neat. They’re cheaper than printing on photo papers, to boot. ☁