[card_zero]

Turns out that the things I wish I'd taken photos of were: bookshelves (with titles visible), crappy old computers and things on the screen, posters I used to have on the wall, my everyday clothes, streets with parked cars, the inside of an art supply store.

These are not achievements, or unusual places, or humans. The things I'd like to see are stores of subtle cultural information than gets lost because it seems unimportant, and then a couple of decades later I want to look at all the details of it again but I can't. What was that car I used to be slightly interested by every time I walked past it? What range of items used to be for sale? What books did I have? What was actually on that poster that got torn and thrown out and now it's impossible to find another? Instead of answers, I have holiday snaps and pictures of humans.

[trollbridge]

This is funny because I found myself wishing the exact same thing not too long ago. My family took a few pictures of ancient computers with things on the screen; I wish we'd had a lot more. Some of that stuff from back then is completely lost to the sands of time.

[BrenBarn]

I love that kind of thing too. I lean towards capturing that partly through photos but also through saving occasional pieces of paper or other physical artifacts. Like when I travel, I'll save receipts, restaurant menus, little brochures from museums, etc. At home, although I can't save everything (my apartment is already cluttered enough!), I'll hang onto occasional things like concert programs, election mailers, etc., just because I find they do a pretty good job of encapsulating something about the time they were in. It saddens me in a way that many of those things are being phased in favor of digital alternatives, because the physical objects have a certain intrinsic coherence that files lack.

[kridsdale1]

We started watching ER since HBO got it last month. My favorite thing about it is the time-capsule of 1994 that it is. The clothes. The software (likely a terminal to a mainframe!). The stacks on stacks of physical documents (no EMR!).

[hammyhavoc]

Photographs of shelves of VHS tapes, books, and TTRPGs from childhood, and the homes of relatives are what I value above a lot of other photos. I had one of the earliest digital cameras, but the photos survived many data losses, and finally being of an age to appreciate a favourite book of a long-deceased relative is unspeakably special.