Phone off, camera on

At various occasions recently, I've noticed how good it can feel to simply put your phone aside and, if needed, take photos with a good old digital camera. We're now online almost all day, reachable or carrying the smartphone close to our bodies. We like, share and type. Going anywhere without this small, flat disc seems absurd and unthinkable to us. Something could happen or we might miss the latest gossip in some WhatsApp group. And shouldn't the whole evening really be documented on Instagram? Quite in keeping with the principle: it didn't happen if it wasn't posted.

I personally don't exclude myself from this. I only realised that I definitely need to change my own mobile phone consumption when a friend of mine increasingly pulled out her phone during our joint activities, we had to take what felt like a million photos and I found it increasingly annoying. A lot of time was always lost and, to be honest, I didn't like a single image because everything looked so terribly posed. Because I personally tend to be rather radical about such things, rather than intending to do it for weeks and then not doing it anyway, I left my phone switched off in my bag at future occasions and stuck to taking photos with my good old camera. 

I noticed the following: it was an almost relieving feeling not to constantly have the smartphone in my hand to capture the perfect moment, the next moment to select some filter plus funny GIF caricature and location tag and two seconds later send everything out into the big, wide internet world. 

The few snapshots with the camera turned out to be genuine and funny. The emphasis is on snapshot, because when I look at the images now, probably not a single one is "Instagram-worthy", but rather a lovely and amusing memory. 

Genuine laughter, twisted poses and a non-existent sharpness that is second to none. And I like them a thousand times better than any perfect image. When looking through them, I wondered why we all look so uninhibited and why that usually doesn't come across as well in photos we take with our phones. I think that's precisely what it's about. We now take a lot of photos with our phones. As tempting as the offer of a mobile phone camera with all its advantages is, the more tense people seem to be in front of the mobile phone camera. Perhaps we're subconsciously aware that every image taken with a mobile phone can be shared with the whole world in milliseconds or hang around in some cloud for years. We like to pose for the mobile phone and the world. For an ageing digital camera, we save the fun, because the effort of publishing is simply a bit too great. Since the Polaroid hype at the latest, we're all aware of how much we've lost the value of a good photo through the now excellent mobile phone cameras. Oh, my left eye is closed and do I have a double chin there? Better take another one! Or ten. That's possible with a mobile phone and it's also of high quality. Fast photography that, unfortunately, is just as quickly forgotten. Perhaps that's precisely why a Polaroid image, whose quality leaves something to be desired, but is nonetheless simply something special, seems to awaken a feeling of nostalgia in us. Perhaps the solid photographic paper also simply reassures us in an ever faster, digitalised world. 

And perhaps that's precisely a reason to simply put your phone aside, enjoy the moment and every now and then take a photo with a real camera again.  

Elisabeth Nötzel