012 · Pixels

14 Jun, 2026

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Photographs are particularly valuable to later generations of a family, allowing them evidence to better reconstruct the tale of their past¹.

The key word here is ‘reconstruct’. A photograph of the past does not tell us why or how a moment happened, only that it did. Something happened. Someone stood there and light hit them.

Photographs, as objects, give us more to work with. The size of the prints. The paper stock. The smell of the album they once lived in.

I held the photograph in my hand, knowing it had once been held by the person it showed. There was comfort in this. I was connected to the past through physical presence.

How would those in the future remember me?

As a cloud-saved photograph on a backlit screen?

Pixels like grains of sand falling through their hands.