Why do we urge to take a photo of everything?

©Susanalf, 2013. Inside Guggenheim, New York.

Last week I visited the Guggenheim Museum, New York (We also have one in Spain: Guggenheim, Bilbao). The show exhibited was Gutai: Splendid Playground. The Gutai Art Association (Active 1954 - 72) was the creative spectrum of Japan influential avant-garde collective of the postwar era. Founded by Yoshihara Jiro in 1954, the group explored new art forms combining performance, painting and interactive environments, and realized an “international common ground” of experimental art through the worldwide reach of their exhibition and publication activities.

©Susanalf, 2013. Observing people inside the museum.

The time I was inside the museum I was observing people and I started to think if it is really so important to take photos of everything, all the time. While I watched them busy with their cameras and telephones taking photos, I wondered if they would have time to visit the exhibition.

Why do we have this urge to take a photo of everything? Do we really think that with a photo we are able to stop time? Is each photo an alternative to the souvenirs, we  used to buy years ago? Altough I work with images and I have always a camera in my bag, I think it is  much better to enjoy the present and keep the time in our memory. 

Martin V. Wong: The Hugo Boss Prize, 2012.

Talking about memory, souvenirs and the pleasure people get from accumulating things, I also visited an interesting exhibition. The Hugo Boss Prize 2012: Danh Vo. IMUUR2 is the title of this exhibition, a remarkable collection of objects ranging from curious and tourist souvenirs to rare antique ceramics from her mother´s home in San Francisco.

IMUUR2.

This exhibition remembers me one I saw last summer in Barcelona: Souvenir. Martin Parr, Photography and Collecting. The exhibition, curated by Juan Pablo Wert, brought together two collections, Martin Parr and Juanjo Fuentes, generated by compulsive collecting and mass results. More information: Souvenir. Martin Parr, Photography and Collecting | - Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona

And it is not exactly the same, but it also reminds me of this Open Call for artists: Opportunity - Possessed by Michael Thorp. Photography collective Possessed are looking for people to give up their possessions. Go here for more information: Opportunity - Possessed • Art • Blank Media Collective

Once more this is getting longer than I expected so I will continue next week with Central Station installation and with my open studio on Firday 29th March. 

Susanalf, 2008. I took this photo some years ago.