Speaking to, and through, photographs.
Photographs don't establish contact - they maintain
it. When we take a photograph we capture a moment, and when we place that photograph
into an album, be it physical or digital, we create the basis upon which, sometime
in the future, we'll be able to reflect on that moment, to examine it and remember
it. Viewing our own photo albums is a way of maintaining contact not only with
others, but with ourselves as well.
I recall (though only vaguely) a short story, or novel, by Robert Silverberg in
which it was possible to purchase a hologram of someone who had died. These were
interactive holograms (after all, it's science fiction) and it was possible to
hold conversations with them. Though this represents a very high degree of interactivity,
it isn't really that different from what we do with photographs today. I'm sure
it's quite common for people to speak to the photographs that they have in their
albums - particularly photos of people who aren't around anymore. But in Silverberg's
future society, when people will perhaps have access to something much closer
to "the real thing", will there still be a need for "conventional"
photographs?
Go to: But what do we do with those?, or
Go to: The pleasure is in the doing, or
Go to: Basically, it's a feeling, or
Go to: To hold in our hands.