HOW MANY PHOTOGRAPHS OF YOU HAVE EVER BEEN TAKEN?
Let's start at the very beginning, back in the good ol' days of film. A roll of 35mm film usually has either 24 or 36 exposures, so I'm going to assume an average of 30 photos per roll…
My dad is a prolific documenter of family life, so I'm sure there was more than a few photographs taken of my mum while she was pregnant with me (although can't recall seeing more than one), plus a roll on the day I was born, and at least another in the first month of my life. Let's say one more roll at my christening, and another as they tried to get the image right for my first passport. Add another three for my first overseas trip, one for my first christmas, and two for my first birthday. Let's say four rolls worth for the second year of my life and five for good measure for the third and fourth years of my life. Then my sister was born, queue two rolls, age four is also when started school, so I'm sure the fifth year of my life earned an extra roll for that, and another for my debut in school plays and ballet concerts. The next three years school years were probably equally eventful as kindergarten. The next year got more interesting, with a round-the-world family holiday, and I’m guessing that in itself was worth almost forty rolls of film, although most of the photographs were not of me, it maybe added three rolls worth to my tally. Now let me round out the final year of the first decade of my life with another five rolls.
30 x (1+1+1+1+1+3+1+2+4+5+5+2+7+21+10+5+0.5)
Add about half a roll worth of game boy camera photographs – how could I almost forget my fist forty into digital photography (thanks to dear lifelong friends)! Plus five rolls for the next retrospectively uneventful year, but let's say twelve rolls worth for the year of the Sydney Olympic Games, which I happened to perform at the opening ceremony. (I’ve been told that the Sydney Olympic Games were the first Olympic Games the mainstream photographic agencies were dealing in digital photographs, subsequently our national archivists had to hunt down photographers who had in fact shot film, because the quality of early digital press photographs was not as good as photographs made with film). From here on in it’s going to get a bit trickier with the continual patchy introduction of digital photography to my life. So, I’ll try take care of the film stats first. I think my dad's documentation of my life on film continued until 2006, so first let’s markdown another thirty-three rolls, for five years of my life, including an overseas trip. Let's add another 2 rolls worth for all the individual and group school photographs I endured, although for most of my high schooling I think they were digital. One roll’s worth of digital exposures split between the first digital camera my dad had access to at work and the floppy disk camera I used to take photographs for the school magazine. And dare I admit, at least four rolls worth of digital photographs from a school formal, fortunately before the days I shared photographs online. Plus a literal roll for my high school photography class. And two rolls of film for each year of my tertiary photographic education.
+ 30 x (0.5+5+12+33+2+1+1+6)
Before I move on from real and imagined film rolls, let me count instant film photographs, from my most recent decade, stored neatly in easily accessible boxes (so I can be fairly accurate here), also accounting for a few doubles I’ve given away to those sharing the frame.
+ 99 + 115 + 41
Back to the second decade of my life, I must consider photographs from a camera/web-cam my sister and I won at an Intel promotional event, but as I remember it was used mainly to take photos and videos of our dog. Then there’s also my the early days with a camera-phone, however looking back at this I have no memories (or evidence) of using my phone for anything more than calls, text messages, and occasional games (Snake or Solitaire). As a teenager, I saved and saved and saved to purchase my first digital camera, an entry level SLR (at a comparatively exorbitant cost compared to the market today). I was also a teenager when I purchased my first computer, an iMac, with a built in web cam along with Apple application Photo Booth – queue pre-selfie selfies, either solo or with my sister. And how could I forgot a three week trip to China with my dad!
+ 2000 + 500 + 200
Then some major life events, overly documented, for better or worse. Three graduations, an engagement and a wedding. And a trip to New Zealand.
+ 100 x 3 + 300 + 2000 + 500 = 9985 and counting!
Enter iPhone. The add travels to twenty-four countries and most Australian states and territories… I’m getting tired, I think I’ll come back to this another day!
Wow! That’s a tough one, but since I’m rather camera-shy I think my number might be quite substantially lower. But then again, I didn’t actually count all the photos I’m in.
February 16, 2018 by Ursula