Friday, April 15, 2011

Other People's Memories

They were selling these at the Museum of Modern Art's gift shop. Plastic wrapped packages of other people's memories! Someone's miscellaneous personal photos could be yours for $2.99. I've always been fascinated by this phenomenon. I was at a flea market a few years back and came across a table with a few shoeboxes of old family photos. I looked through all the memories and felt bad this fella had reached a point where he needed to sell his photographic connection to the past. When I asked him why he was doing it, he got outraged, and said they weren't his photos, he'd never sell his own family photos. And yet he had no problem selling someone else's. My grandfather passed away and there are whole photo albums of his past filled with people and memories I don't know. I'm keeping them for now, but someday will probably sadly let them go. Someday my photos will need to be let go. Maybe I'll throw them in a big bonfire or send them on a rocket into space. Or maybe I'll sell them to art connoisseurs at the MOMA.

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