One of the most humbling things about going through my mother’s old photographs is seeing people I am related to go from young adults to old people in just a few photographs. We all intellectually know this is true of everyone, including ourselves, but the fact of aging and getting old doesn’t really hit us until we are past middle age and feel aging hitting us acutely (as I am now in my mid 50s). At that point we are no longer able to convince ourselves “that will never happen to me”
By inheriting the family records I
see in just a few photographs how people aged from young, vital and beautiful
to old people in what for me is a blink of an eye. Note the modern AI colorization of old black
and white pictures, which will be a separate post.
The super strange part for me is finding pictures of these relatives at my age (mid 50s) from about 80 years ago, and they look super old! I look pretty good for my age, but my relatives back then at 40 looked 60, at 50 looked 80. Maybe it’s healthcare, vitamins, diet, or maybe the fact I work on a keyboard and most of the men out on a farm, but it’s a little discerning to see people my age looking decades older.
Of course everyone above - but the bottom one - was dead before I was born.
I suppose my own photos will make my own life like look like a blink of an eye to whoever goes through my album - if physical pictures even exist - in 50 years.
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