Were My Photos Better Back Then?
PHOTOSNACK #678
Here is my Sunday thought.
Every once in a while, I browse through my Lightroom library — photographs I took five, six, even ten years ago. And you know what? Quite often, I catch myself thinking: my images were better back then than they are today.
It’s a strange feeling. On one hand, I truly hope my photography has grown, that my eye and craft have matured. On the other, I can’t shake this sensation that some of those older frames carry more weight, more freshness, more… something.
Why is that?
Part of it, I believe, comes from rising expectations. Over the years, I’ve looked at more and more incredible work by other photographers. Especially as an editor, I’m constantly immersed in great images. Naturally, my standards for my own photography have climbed higher and higher. What once felt like a strong picture now sometimes feels ordinary compared to everything else I see.
But there’s another layer. Emotional attachment. Those earlier images were born in a time when photography still felt overwhelmingly new and exciting to me. Back then, creating a good photograph wasn’t just satisfying — it was exhilarating. That joy etched itself deep into my memory, and whenever I revisit those old files, those feelings resurface. They amplify the impact of the pictures themselves.
So maybe it’s not that my older photographs were objectively better. Maybe it’s that they carry the echo of who I was back then, the thrill of those first discoveries.
What about you?
Do you ever look back at your earlier work and feel it has a special kind of power your newer images struggle to match?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this.
Until next time,
Tomasz
I am convinced my film photography was better than the majority of my digital work and there are a couple of reasons why. I started shooting film when I was eight with a point and shoot Kodak Brownie, with no controls. My next camera, a Zenit B had only three shutter speeds and a cheap lens, this was when I really learnt to read the available light. No metering, fully manual. I taught myself how to develop my own B&W film then colour transparency film. A very skilled portrait photographer taught me how to print b&w. I spent several years freelancing for newspapers using Nikons, shooting wedding with a Hasselblad and commercial work with 5x4.
Then digital came along and we all got lazy, auto-focus, better metering, instant images for review. Auto winding all we had to do was point it in the right direction and adjust the aperture or shutter speed. Film with only 12 frames or 36 made you think, I very rarely bracketed exposures, I knew it would be fine without seeing it, that was the difference I had the knowledge to trust my judgement. You didn't waste frames just because you could. I and every photographer I knew who covered weddings seldom shot more than 150 frames, now they shoot 5000 !
The other consideration is that this was thirty and more years ago. I'm not sure I could go back to film now, digital has made it too easy.
one of your most thoughtful and meaningful missives.