On the Importance of Printed Portraits

It’s always surprising to me when I hear that clients ‘just want the digitals’ instead of beautiful, thoughtfully made prints.

“I don’t even know what I would do with them…" they often say, not even giving it a moment’s hesitation.

So much of this belief is dependent on their multiple levels digital storage, their many non-backed up hard drives clicking away toward extinction, the drawers filled with old thumb drives, forgotten and lost under piles of desk junk only to be thrown out or erased without a thought.

I understand that in today’s oversaturated social media stressed culture that it’s more efficient for photos to just be push up to the ether, just for a moment for people to splash it with a few hearts or thumbs up as they move to the next dopamine click burst. What is left out is the true gift that we provide as photographers. I’ve always found that my images don’t really exist until I can hold them in my hand and feel it physically in my hands.

It may just be my Gen X nature, but there was a sense of excitement as we waited for those rolls of film to come back from the local Photomat. We would wonder if we got the shots we wanted and they almost never came back as we expected. Each one of those prints were to be passed around, taped up to the wall, stashed to be used later for a special birthday collage, put in the album…these items that we had were moments of time that were treasured, because effort actually had to be made to create them. Today, we blast a 60 shot burst to get the selfie right. Before, those 36 shots you had per roll were precious. These were moments that absolutely had a cost and would be treasured.

Now, each phone will have10,000 images, added to the100,000’s of images backed up across the world. Older images are forgotten and shelved as well, eclipsed by the newest, the most important in the day-to-day, processed, then long forgotten.

I feel it.

I know it.

I do it myself.

The problem with it is…not one of them, for the most part, is really treated as important. They surely are in your pocket and with you at all times, however we completely take those images for granted.

I’ve always thought that when you go through the effort to have your portrait professionally done in a style you love, have it printed, matted, framed, and hung on your wall, there is an absolute magic to that. That portrait becomes a living, breathing testament to who you are as a human. When someone visits to your home for the first time, those images tell the viewer what you value and who you treasure. They set the mood for the room, how you see yourself, and how you want the world to see you. Deciding to have a handful of images displayed is a commitment to material space is too precious to not celebrate every day.

There is something that makes these things magical. Imagine if you paused to view the stoic gaze of your grandfather in the portrait in your hallway, knowing that if he was here, it would morph into that familiar cherubic grin when he realized you were there to visit. You will stare into that portrait and wait for it to happen. Your longing for those moments become palpable and you can become emotionally moved.

Having your portraits printed and hanging proudly on your wall can be more impactful than you may realize. It can change your relationship with what your photographer can create with you— your relationship with yourself.