Photos do more than show a scene. They ask us to feel something and to decide what matters. As students and faculty discussed the meaning of a photo, their answers converged on the same idea. Images hold emotion, and that emotion helps us remember, connect, and sometimes change.
Dr. Scott Campbell, a faculty member, highlighted how the mind processes pictures over time. He noted that younger people tend to hold onto negative images longer than older people. “There is a difference in how we remember images,” he said, adding that some researchers think it is adaptive. Young people may be more alert to risk, while older people may not process the same images in the same way. His point set a tone for the rest of the conversation. A photo is more than pixels. It lands in a person with a history, a mood, and a body.
Campbell also brought up accuracy. “Memory is not ever an accurate recall,” he said. We rebuild moments with bias and feeling. A picture can act like evidence because it freezes details that our minds might change. At the same time, a photo is not neutral. Choices about light, timing, and framing shape what we see. That tension makes images powerful. They can preserve what happened, and they can guide how we feel about it.
Students kept coming back to emotion. For Aidan De Hartog ’27, the strongest meaning is the chance to relive a moment that would otherwise pass. “Sometimes in the moment of certain situations, a photo is a way to relive that moment,” he said. He talked about sports and the way a single frame allows an athlete to return to an action that is gone the moment it ends. Aidan also thinks photos surprise us. You expect to feel one thing, but when you see the image, a different feeling arrives. “Photos can bring different emotions to people,” he said. That surprise is part of the meaning.
Max Mortimer ’29 focused on perspective. He sees meaning working on two levels. There is a personal meaning that ties to your own life, and there can be a broader meaning that sits above any one person. Max thinks our beliefs and experiences shape what we notice. “Everyone has a different perspective,” he said. One person might read a photo as happy, another might read it as sad. He also believes that some images can still convey emotion even without a backstory. You can look, guess what the photo is trying to show, and feel something honest.
Will Wong ’27 connected photos to memory in a simple way. He takes pictures to remember what is beautiful and what matters to him. Family gatherings and travel opportunities arose immediately. He described seeing a view that exists only in one place and wanting to record it so he can carry it with him. That idea is not complicated, but it is the root of why many people point a camera at anything they see. A photo keeps a moment close.
Across all the interviews, a pattern emerged. People respond to photos that resemble them, and they also react to photos that do not. Campbell put it this way. We gravitate towards what we recognize, and we are also drawn to what is new. That mix gives a photo room to teach. Images can confirm what we believe, and they can shift our worldview when they show us something we have not encountered before.
There was also an honest question about presence: Does taking a photo pull you out of the moment? Dr. Campbell said it can be hard to be present from behind the camera. At the same time, paying close attention can almost feel like a form of meditation. Many student photographers know that balance. Sometimes, the act of making the image is how you notice more. Other times, you need to put the camera down.
If there is a single lesson to be learned from these conversations, it is that meaning lives on both sides of the lens. The photographer chooses what to honor with attention. The viewer brings a self to the picture. The meeting point is where the action is. That is why the same image can comfort one person and unsettle another. It is also why some photos last. They carry enough open space for different viewers to find a way in.
What, then, makes a photo important? The answers here suggest a few tests. It holds a feeling that stays. It helps you relive a moment you care about. It preserves details your memory might blur. It allows you to see a person or a place more clearly, or to see yourself more clearly. None of that requires a famous subject or a perfect composition. It does require attention, though, from both the photographer and the viewer.
A photo cannot reveal the complete truth, and memory cannot either. Together, they get us closer to it. That might be the work of photography in our lives. We carry images so we can carry meaning, and we return to them when we need to remember who we are, what we value, and where we hope to go next.
