Point and Shoot

Today many use their phone to take pictures. Fifteen years ago or longer, many used a digital camera and moved pictures onto their hard drives - never to be seen again. Some took the chip to the drug store or camera shop to have the photos printed, to hold and share. Over the years, picture taking and photography have seen many changes.

Did you or your family have a KODAK Brownie camera? The Brownie Flash came out in 1959, although the first Kodak rectangular box camera was introduced in 1888. Kodak's biggest year of film and camera sales was 1996. "Snapshot" and "Kodachrome" are now in the dictionary.

When you were younger, did you like to take pictures of people, flowers, places, or pets? Where are those photos now? Are there albums around (maybe with black triangle corners) of you or your parents or even your great-grandparent’s wedding?

Would you save these if you had to move into smaller quarters? Why or why not? Have you had your old family pictures scanned onto other media? Is that media now outdated as well? Is there a family memory you want to write about that only exists in your mind because of old photos? What will the next generation have as photographic memories?

Write a story about how photos have played (or not played) a part in your life. What was YOUR first camera? (Instamatic with the pop-on flash cube? Instant developing Kodak camera?)

[According to the July/August 2021 issue of The Atlantic, the Kodak plant in Rochester, NY, is converting to the manufacture of generic pharmaceuticals keeping the Eastman Kodak name.]