Niece number 3 snapped several photos with her pink, an ala-Barbie polaroid camera, at my mum’s recent 90^th birthday party. She took one of my mum and me. An instant, hardcopy photograph that captured a special moment on a special day. A fitting keepsake. And, a party favour of sorts. See, touch, immediately own. I liked it. As did everyone else who had tangible photos taken with the birthday girl.

Polaroid cameras are making and/or have made a comeback. Somewhat like vinyl records. My first encounter with a polaroid camera was in the 1990’s at a Kodak instant camera launch. I cannot recall what I wrote about the camera or its features for my story/article. What I remember was how chuffed I was to have a photo developed and printed in seconds/minutes, before my very eyes. It was not about being in the photograph. It was the process and speediness that caught my attention. The drama – from the photo taking, the roll out of the film from the camera (my favourite part), the development of the image – to the actual printed polaroid photograph. In almost real time. Voila! I felt a similar excitement with niece number 3’s polaroid camera.

For a split second, I considered buying one. It would have been my first. I’ve never owned a camera in my life. My husband, on the other hand, has had many cameras over the years. Of different sizes and complexities. Years ago, he used to lug around a camera bag, the size of a briefcase, with zoom lens, tripod etc. Sensibly, he has since downsized his camera such that it fits into his pants/trouser pocket. I’ve never been interested in taking photos much less with me in it. Not a selfie fan. I could not be bothered to learn about aperture and shutter speed in manual analogue cameras. The automatic and/or idiot-proof ones did not capture my attention either. The cost of films, printing and reprints, and the long wait time for development and delivery also did not assuage my disinterest.

However, since I set-up my blog, I have become a little less disinterested. Texts with no photos or videos make for boring optics/layout. I now take functional and/or reasonably relevant photos to accompany the posts I write each week. While the posts/texts might still be boring I muster at least one photograph for visual enhancement or distraction with my smartphone camera. It’s more than adequate with features to shoot, crop, and improve images. Easy and speedy for my online publication.

So very different from when I was growing up in the 1960’s and 1970’s in Alor Setar. There was no digital nor polaroid cameras. Not even the conventional film-fed ones. There might have been but none that my family owned. Luckily, there were a few black and white photos of my parents, sisters, brothers, and me that were digitised. I’ve saved them on my laptop. Back then, people couldn’t/didn’t take photos and videos of everything their children did – first day, first smile, crawl, stand, walk, school etc. And/or what they themselves did/do – go for a walk, run, eat, talk, meet friends and go on holiday. Maybe, there were people who documented their lives but they were not published or shared like it is now.

Back to my black and white photos. My favourite is the one of my siblings and me standing in front of our home in Seberang Perak, beside Haji’s sundry shop. We were young, all under 18. Whenever I look at the digitised version of that photograph, it never fails to make me feel nostalgic and a sense of camaraderie. More likely, because of our shared childhood. I have, sometimes, wondered why we took that photo? On that day? Who was the photographer? Why weren’t my parents in it? Did they take a separate photo, just the two of them? Hmm…

For landmark birthdays and anniversaries, my family probably went to the photo studio to get the occassion memorialized in print. I have vague recollections of going to photo studios and/or posing aka standing still and upright, and having that deer in the headlights look. The photos most likely took a few days or weeks before they were ready for collection. Studio photos were framed and took pride of place on the walls of our home. Similarly, my husband and I have a collection of framed photos in our bedroom and in my home office. They are mainly of family, and holidays we have had over the years. I don’t know why but framed photos, whomever’s, have a traffic light effect on me. I stop, take a look, and go.

I enjoy photos, both digital and physical. Going through photos/photo albums makes me pause/take a break from the every day. Think, recall, feel and relive memories of family, friends, people, times, and places. Nice.