Looking Through the Lens: The Art of Time Travel

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1, 2, 3, click.

Our minds are just like cameras. They take specific moments in time and preserve those moments by tucking them safely away, usually in the form of a visual image. And just when we need to access those moments most, something in our daily lives triggers those memories to come flooding back to us.

I experienced one of these moments back in early September after stumbling across a present I had gotten for my birthday: my first camera. It was a Polaroid One Step Instant Express 600 Camera, the kind that would pop out your finished photo after the click of a button. I remember eagerly asking for it at the tender age of seven, back when I was keen on becoming a professional photographer.  I had originally been packing for college when I found it. And to my surprise, it looked exactly the way I had left it—a dark hunter green shade, the logo sticker peeling off at the edges and still having 4 empty Polaroid pictures left inside.

My Polaroid camera has always had a soft spot in my heart. For one, I always admired how “modern” it looked compared to the stereotypical old-fashioned Polaroid cameras.  It was also sleek, smooth and covered with a glossy finish that always left it looking brand new. Plus, it was very small and compact—perfect for someone my size. Looking at the camera, I remember how attached to it I was as a child. Even though I was never good at taking pictures, the camera’s fresh design always spurred my interest in photography. For not only was I inspired by what I saw through the camera lens; I was also inspired by the camera itself. Maybe that’s why I never bothered giving it away.

After finding the Polaroid camera in the back of my closet, I powered it up, recognizing the soft whirring noise the camera hummed as it prepared to take photos.  I looked through the lens, remembering all the times I took “beauty portraits” of friends, family, neighbors. Remembering those moments had me itching to test my camera again, to click the button and capture another moment in time.

Cameras make pictures and pictures make memories. Yet it’s amazing how my little Polaroid camera served as an entire memory within itself rather than the photos that came out of it. Maybe that’s the true purpose of cameras—they aren’t meant to trigger one’s memory.


They’re meant for time traveling.