Talking Pictures
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- Опубліковано 28 вер 2024
- When I tell people I collect snapshots, I usually get a blank stare. So I made this video to help explain why I love them. Also: Talking Pictures is now a book! 200+ of my favorite photos-with-writing-on-them. It comes out in October, and you can pre-order it from Amazon or BarnesandNoble.com:
www.amazon.com/...
or
www.barnesandno...
Music:
"Gruyere" by Podington Bear, used under a Creative Commons license
"Last Kind Word Blues" by Geechie Wiley, recorded 1930, no known copyright
This reminds me of One Hour Photo. The monologue Robin Williams gives is so deep and moving to me:
"I'm sure my customers never think about it, but these snapshots are their little stands against the flow of time. The shutter is clicked, the flash goes off and they've stopped time - just for the blink of an eye. And if these pictures have anything important to say to future generations, it's this: I was here. I existed. I was young, I was happy, and someone cared enough about me in this world to take my picture." - Robin Williams as Sy Parrish -
You're such a great author!
You don't only write books, you also invite us into your adventures and unique hobbies and stories. I'm very thankful for that and I'm in love with those things, too :))♥
I love old photographs, I mostly collect them from family members though, it feels more personal to me, like I'm a result of their life. I'm a painter so finding pictures like that are so inspiring! They enable me to create paintings with a really intense story behind them. This was such an inspiring video, thanks!
i was brought here on suggestion by your good buddy, John Green.
this video is truly incredible. one of the best ever uploaded here, perhaps.
In one of the pictures on the back it says Jaleen March of 1959. That's my name.I thought it was odd since it's not a very common name.
0:51 Jacob!
That's what I said when I saw it
omd yes
OMG HI CARAT.
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I miss looking at old photos of my family. Unfortunately, all those scrap books, all those boxes of memories, turned to ash from a fire that devastated our old house. The nostalgia pictures bring are worth a thousand, a million words. This is definitely a great hobby and probably the best video on UA-cam I have ever seen...
I also have collected old photographs for many years and wasn't sure why until I saw your work. I guess I've been hearing the talking photos and didn't realize. There voices are so gentle and bypass the ears. Thanks for this great work and translating the beautiful voices of the past.
This is why I have kept all the pictures that my Grandmother had. I love that even though all the people are long gone they are still alive in the photographs. They often smile and wink showing little secrets about themselves.
I've loved this video since I fist watched it two years back. It feels like it could be the opening of a movie.
Qwr
This is amazing. This is people's lives, snapshots of time gone by, forgotten and abandoned, and yet not so. Proof that human life is worth something. That even when seemingly no one else cares, someone somewhere is interested in your existence. I work in a thrift shop, and the saddest part of my day is when someone donates their grandparents photos, presumably, or something of the like, and I have to go through and take them out and throw that person's life away, or so it feels.
I collect photographs of old wedding pictures! They are so beautiful!! I always get sad when I go to flea markets and see all the old photos...I wonder myself about the people in the pics and of their lives.
I do the exact same thing! I love going to antique stores and sorting the pictures, finding the ones where the eyes speak to you and feel the connection in your soul, to these people who you've never met, and never will. I think its the potential to learn the story, to glean their lives from the varying shades of gray and the, as you've so beautifully illustrated, writing on the back.
I was reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower today and I remembered this video when Charlie talks about old pictures: he thinks that the 'people in the old pictures seems a little happier than you're now'. I love this video! :)
Gosh I love watching this! It makes me so happy and nostalgic. Like part of me is sitting in the chair watching the video, and the other part of me is across the world watching people get pictures taken of them.
I cried when I watched this. I don't know why. I guess I am just incredibly attached to photos, to me they truly are snapshots of the soul. Even though I don't know any of these people in the photos, I know that I love them. And I miss them like they were my family. Thank you for sharing your collection.
I come back to this video every couple of months. Honestly this is my favorite video on youtube. Thank you for making this.
Once in awhile you come across a video that really makes you think. This is one of them.
This made me cry ._. plus, it made me wonder why families throw away such memories.. I guess people just want to forget who they came from.. WHAT they came from.
As a photographer, this is possibly the most amazing video of the stories that photographs tell. Thank you!
This is one of my favorite videos ever. It reminds me of a little book I bought at a flea-market the other day, a book called "live and learn and pass it on". Its a book about what people have learned from life, at all ages, and advices they want to give. On the first page it says: "Wenche, I thought you might enjoy these words of wisdom. All the best, Judy Longsworth. 5.20.93"
I wonder who they are, or who they were, and why Wenche gave this beautiful book away.
Thanks for sharing, Ran. I grew up around antiques, so much so that they blend into the background for me. I appreciate that someone can find the stories, the memories, the wisdom that they impart to us. It's a reminder for me to look for the stories that are there.
-J
You know, I realize that everyone is complaining about the new homepage but without it I would've never found this video.
You did a really lovely job choosing your photos.
I'm really glad that Project for Awesome liked/favourited this video and led me here.
That "Your Daddy" one just hits you like a brick.
John was right -- this is one of the most thought-provoking and well-made videos I've seen in a LONG time.
this is beautiful, i will look out for those photos next time i am at the market
It is amazing how much can be said in a few words and a photo. Thanks for sharing this.
Oh my God. This is my favorite video of all time. All. Time.
I do the same exact thing. I love collecting old photographs! I also generally go for ones that are labeled. I have literally hundreds of old photographs, and I recently bought an amazingly interesting photograph album that I made a video of. I love that I'm not the only one that likes doing this. Some people find it strange that I like to buy pictures of people I don't even know and have been dead for decades. I hope that after many years of collecting, I will have many thousands of them.
Me too. Luv old pics. Thanks for the video.
I love collecting photos of people I dont know. I found this really neat one at an antique store in June. I hope to keep up the hobby. The flea market thing sounds like a really good idea! I will definitely do that.
I think I'm going to collect them too. It's such a beautiful hobby.
I absolutely adore this. Really compelling, interesting, and extremely well done. The cinematography in particular is excellent.
I collect old photographs too. My favourite one is of a little ballerina that I found in Czech Republic. I think it's fascinating that the people in the photos had an entire life that I don't know about. It's a complete mystery to me save for this single photo that captures one aspect of it.
This is incredible. I collect coins and other antique bric-a-brac. I want to start collecting old snapshots now.
Thank you so much for this video. It was amazing.
Wow... I never thought of old pictures telling a story, but I now see what you mean. A wonderful video. Thank you very much for sharing your hobby with us!
This feels like the opening to an epic movie!
its sad there's not stores like this in my country :/ want to collect some thought.
So glad John linked this. This was an amazing video. Keep doing what you're doing!
This was really beautiful - it makes me want to start looking for photos at the flea market too.
Awesome I love to look at old photos.
Great video, a bit creepy at parts but overall, fantastic. My nana has tons of scrapbooks/albums full of my ancestors, and I love to learn about their lives (I'm 15 by the way). I found out from one of the pictures that either my great-grandfather's or great-great-grandfather's brother was a POW in WWI. Yes, World War 1. I was absolutely blown away. That's one of the reasons I love visiting her, I always learn something new.
I love the picture at 2:42 so much character.
Wish we still had markets here.
We used to when i was little my Nan took me to many... But i was never allowed to buy anything because I brought 'Silly Things' such as postcards, used birthday cards and books with messages on the front page.
I liked it for some reason. Can't explain why I was only six or seven at the time. :)
What an INCREDIBLE hobby.
Beautifully shot. This was really neat to watch. I'm very glad that I had the chance to se it. Thank you.
Amazing camera work....wow. All those stories...it's kind of eerie, but so fascinating!
Wow. John was right. This is BEAUTIFUL. Thank you for sharing your beautiful hobby with us.
When I'm dead and gone, I hope someone is there to keep my photos and read my story.
Thank you so much for this video. I collect old pictures too but have not had as many great finds as you have.
In a slightly backwards way, this makes me appreciate Facebook (I don't have one, so from afar, I guess). We have the ability to easily share photographs, which, quite like these, are tagged and commented on. Instant histories.
This video is beautiful and so moving. Thank you for posting something to thoughtful.
That is incredibly cool. They don't have bins of photographs here I don't think..
Your videos leave me speechless.
I love this type of stuff so much!!!
this is so soothing
I love your Books!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited for the adaptation/movie to be made!!!!!!!! I sure will be the first one there!
Wonderful video!! I wholeheartedly agree with you!! I love looking at photos!! It is kinda sad that future generations will have few actual photographs to look at now that it's all digital!!
people, random, ordinary people. These people are the world, they are now the floor we are walking on. Watching them in a picture, framed, and still with us, makes me think. It makes my heart start to shiver and shake. Because the fact of the matter is. We will all be gone, lost and forgotten. We will all disappear. Suddenly one life seems so small, worries count as nothing. But I believe, we are sons and daughters of the living God. We are not just ordinary people, we are the chosen ones.
Interesting to see a picture with a coffin. It used to be a common custom around here (Estonia) to take pictures on funerals. Taking group photos of everyone present next to the coffin seemed to be the norm. I guess back when travel was difficult funerals and weddings were one of the rear occasions the whole family would get together. Still - somehow getting out a digital camera on a funeral nowadays would seems very inappropriate to me.
beautiful ! so happy to see there are people out there making amazing use of you tube !
Am I the only person that almost starts crying when you see old photos for sale? They should be with family. :'(
Perhaps one of the most meaningful videos on UA-cam. That's not saying much, since a lot of them are just water-skiing hamsters, but a touching video nonetheless.
This video is simply brilliant.
imagine this man looking to Brazilian old photos...
You are an amazing writer. I have the movie and last two books on my Christmas list. I think I'm getting Hollow City because my sister told me not to buy it when I was at the bookstore this week
Such a wonderful thing to do.
Haunting.
I share your hobby! Old photos seem like messages from the past
i love these videos! Thank you for keeping up the great work!
Your voice calms me.
imagin writing a story based on these photographs, and the messages written on the back...that would be something interesting and i mean it...it would be.
I found most of these quite morbid. Still, very fascinating.
Atmospheric and poignant; inexorably draws one in.
this is beautiful.
This was amazing.
really cool. beautifully shot.
beautiful.
You're truly spreading this hobby around. :)
It's a travesty this doesn't have more than a million views by now.
this is wonderful.
i collect snapshots too.
how could you dislike this?
Inspirational.
Miss Peregrine`s Home for Peculiar Children
Wow I don't know what else to say !!Thank you.
Beautifully done, sir.
There was once a video that showed how he stored old photos - it looked like they were in some sort of hanging sleeves in photo boxes. I thought it was in one of his videos, or John Green's, but I can't find it anywhere. If anyone know where to see this, I would be most appreciative - I've been collecting old photos for years and looking for a better storage solution.
John Green sent me. This is lovely in the best way. :D
A different and a very good hobby..!Very intresting..
Splendid video, thank you.
Thank you so much for making this. I have the same hobby, and am often met by the same blank stares. I have thousands of photos and each one tells an amazing story, most of which I now know by heart. I wish I was someplace like LA where there were flea markets more than three months a year, but then I probably wouldn't have any money left for food or other minor things like that.
Do you research the people in your photos?
This is a beautiful video.
Another pice of art
Amazing.
John Green sent me...he really likes this video...as do I
this video came out on my birth day. such i good video too!
Do you update your finds onto Geneological Sites? You have an amazing cache of Family History resources.
@ransriggs
Glad to hear it :)
I've always loved history myself, but this is just gorgeous :)
woo I was the 1000th like. I keep coming back to this video over and over again
I also collect snapshots. I find them beautiful. :)
Fantastic
awesome!