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Sometimes we understand something very important about ourselves in the most unexpected way. For example, looking at old photographs of people we don’t know. What fascinates us with these pictures?
I have several albums with photographs at home, which depict people who are completely strangers to my family. My great-grandfather (even before the revolution) was in charge of the zincography department at Sytin’s printing house, wrote several books on the theory of photoprocesses and used these pictures for illustrations.
Looking at them is one of my favorite things to do. I like turning over heavy pages of albums lined with parchment paper to observe how people lived, how they looked, how people communicated long before I was born.
It’s amazing, but looking at their faces, looking at what they are wearing, what objects surround them, I recognize in these photos … myself, my loved ones: these people are the same as we are, they laugh in the same way, they put on airs or worry in front of the lens. Sometimes I feel awkward – these pictures (and the people in them) seem very naive and ingenuous.
There is even a superstitious fear: I seem to be looking where it is forbidden to look – these people have long been dead, but they still smile at each other, continue the gesture they have begun, or simply look at me from those other shores …
(Un)ordinary faces
Old pictures are full of charm. Some of the most popular in bookstores are photo albums, which contain everyday photographs that capture the life of the most ordinary, now nameless people:
“Family Album: Photographs and Letters 100 Years Ago”, “We Traveled a Lot”, “Grandfather, Grand-pere, Grandfather: Memories of grandchildren and granddaughters about grandfathers, famous and not so, with vintage photographs of the 2005th–2010th centuries” (White City , 2011; Eterna, XNUMX and XNUMX).
We only care about what is in tune with our feelings.
“Three years ago we took a big risk by launching the first book made up of photographs from the late XNUMXth and early XNUMXth centuries,” recalls Nina Komarova, editor-in-chief of the Eterna publishing house. – And of course, they could not imagine that the album “It was good to live in the country” would be instantly sold out: they had to reprint the circulation three times!
It turned out that readers are interested not only in memoirs, memoirs, diaries, but also in visual evidence of a bygone era.” So why, knowing nothing about the people in the photo – no names, no biographies, no character – we are so fascinated by their faces?
Knowing yourself
“Our perception is arranged in such a way that any object (and photography is no exception) excites us only if it turns out to be consonant with our own experiences,” comments psychologist Veronika Nurkova.
“Old photographs are a projection screen for our unconscious feelings and fantasies,” agrees Jungian analyst Tatiana Rebeko. “And that is why, looking at photos of people we don’t know who lived in a completely different era, we see ourselves in them – we “guess” our own (unconscious) desires and feelings.”
It turns out that if the woman captured in the photo seems especially sad and lonely to me, then such a perception speaks more about my mood and attitude than about her, photographed many years ago.
It turns out that looking at old photographs, we get the opportunity to peer into our own inner world, to learn something very important about ourselves, to understand our needs, to see our dreams.
Protected by the past
When we hold an old photograph in our hands, first of all we perceive it as an old thing. “Old means beautiful; old means good,” explains Veronika Nurkova. – Antiques have a special charm.
They command respect (be it architecture, works of art, furniture or books), because they seem to have a quality mark on them: since they survived time, it means that they have something valuable, unique, something that helped them avoid destruction, destruction.”
In fact, photographs that today seem unique to us were treated with skepticism by their contemporaries, who first of all noticed their artistic or technical shortcomings. Here they are – through the eyes of the German writer Thomas Mann:
“We sorted through cards in which people, dumbfounded by a flash of magnesium, with sallow, cramped faces, stared blankly in front of them with a dull look and resembled corpses that were put on chairs without closing their eyes.”
This is how he described the passion for photography that was fashionable at the beginning of the XNUMXth century. But today we perceive them differently. “We do not notice all these shortcomings,” says art therapist Alexander Kopytin, “on the contrary, we feel respect and even reverence.
This is what happens when meeting with an elderly and, as it seems to us, a very experienced and wise person – these photographs give us a feeling of certainty, reliability. They seem to protect us, giving us hope that, despite everything, we will be able to overcome any life hardships.
Hiding from reality
The idealization of the past is another reason for liking old photos. According to culturologist Svetlana Boim, this experience is akin to nostalgia and more often occurs during transitional periods of history.
This is how a special defensive reaction of the psyche manifests itself: unconsciously we are looking for stability and predictability in the past, which we lack in today’s life. But at all times, the past is most often idealized by those of us who are dissatisfied with our lives, unsure of ourselves, and keenly experiencing missed opportunities.
“Such people are in constant conflict with reality, which prevents them from realizing themselves, bringing their ideas and desires to life,” explains Alexander Kopytin. – And the imaginary “beautiful past” allows (at least in fantasy) to satisfy these needs and for a while to feel in a shelter where you can rest.
Looking at old photographs, we plunge into a different era, establish new relationships with strangers, and conduct an internal dialogue with them. And in this “refuge” the world becomes more understandable, comfortable, habitable.
“Finish” your family
The contemplation of old photographs fascinates like a dream. And just like our dreams, it is one of the ways to look into your unconscious. “Dreams come to us in the form of pictures – in this they are like photographs,” says psychoanalyst, member of the Parisian Psychoanalytic Society Elena Zhaluniene.
– But in the photo you can hold your eyes longer, unlike a fleeting dream. We can fantasize about seeing our ancestors, invent their fate, compare ourselves with them. Looking at others, we are immersed in our own history, completing it, acquiring our own identity.”
“We can dream and come up with something about our kind,” continues Tatyana Rebeko. – So, many are familiar with fantasies that their life would have turned out differently if they had been born in a different family.
Old photos give you the opportunity to come up with a different relationship with your parents, a different destiny, and thus correct something in your real life. Those of us who want to learn more about the history of our family are more attentive to old photographs, Veronika Nurkova agrees with this.
“The revolution, wars, emigration deprived many Russian families of relics and archival materials that connect us with previous generations,” the psychologist explains. “It creates gaps in the family history that deprive you of direction.
You can try to restore these gaps with the help of old pictures that replace everyday pictures from the life of your own family. On the images of strangers, we “put on” fantasies about our ancestors: this woman in a crinoline, of course, is not my great-grandmother, but she lived at the same time and could look the same …
So, in the imagination, we complete the history of our kind. It is interesting that in Europe, where there are no such gaps in history, where a house or plot of land can belong to a family for several hundred years, and family traditions and relics are passed down from generation to generation, interest in old photography is less intense than in Russia. , says Veronika Nurkova.
The promise of eternal life
Photography technology allows us to capture the most vulnerable in us – our appearance and body, which is constantly changing … to one day disappear.
The paradox of the pictures is that, having passed through time, they outlive their heroes. These people have long been gone, but at the same time we are watching – and here they are: cheerful, happy, alive.
Identifying with the heroes of old photos, we feel immortal
“We can feel their almost magical ability to resist time and the physical changes associated with it,” Alexander Kopytin reflects. – Old photos seem to cancel aging and death itself.
By identifying with the characters in these photographs, we can, even if for a moment and more often without realizing it, feel immortal. As if under the black-and-white or ocher cover of old photos, as under a layer of decayed leaves and deep snow, lies the foundation from which our new life can “sprout”.