Digital memories

PINOY KASI
Digital memories
By Michael Tan
Inquirer
Last updated 01:37am (Mla time) 08/02/2006

Published on Page A11 of the August 2, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer

THE first digital camera I had was a heavy early model passed on to me by my father. I was really impressed with its photographs, but my enthusiasm was quickly dampened because its battery would run out after five or six shots, and had to be recharged using an adapter three times the size of the battery. The camera fell slowly into disuse and then went into storage.

Through the years, the cameras have improved, and I've been able to benefit from this technology without having to buy any. I've had two more digitals, and both were manufactured by Kodak, given to me as part of their awards for "child-friendly" columns. I have to say the cameras are the best prizes I've ever gotten.

'Kodakan'

The cameras give a new meaning to "kodakan," the Filipino term we coined to mean photography. Suddenly, photography isn't just a matter of preserving memories, although, as I'm going to describe later in the column, that function remains important.

Given that I teach, do research and write, the cameras have been a real boon, functioning almost as a very efficient research assistant.

Let me give a few examples.

Teaching anthropology has meant helping students to become more conscious about how our culture is constantly being shaped by different institutions, including government, the faith-based groups and mass media. We're surrounded, bombarded by all kinds of messages and images, and it's important we become critical about how those messages can be manipulative.

A digital camera allows me to capture those messages and images – either as still pictures or, lately, as short videos -- which I then replay to students for their critical analysis.

For example, I once took a picture of a billboard ad showing women in a wild frenzy, chasing after a young male holding a new model of a cell phone. Of course, ads often use hyperbole to market a product, but it's still useful for young people to reflect on the way the ads reflect social norms. Is a man's self-worth so tied to his cell phone, to its being the
latest model? Would you see ads showing a woman clinging to the latest model of a cell phone, and men chasing after her?

It isn't just billboard ads that you can shoot. One of my favorite teaching tools is a digital photograph of two female mannequins in the lobby of Mahidol University's International College (MUIC) in Thailand. One mannequin was decked out in a proper college uniform, meaning a skirt at knee's length, a blouse properly tucked in with sleeves reaching the elbows. The sign read: "MUIC uniform."

Next to that mannequin was another one showing a female in a skirt above the knee, a blouse too transparent, with sleeves that were too short, and a cell phone hanging from her neck. It had a sign that asked, "Who?"

I use that digital photograph to talk about gender, and how society tries to control women's bodies through prescribed uniforms. Curiously, there was only one mannequin showing a male in the proper uniform, without an accompanying figure showing "improper" male uniforms. After all, males can't be "improper." I also ask students, "Now, how do you think the women students actually dress?" And, wisely, the kids answer, "Probably a lot more like 'Who'."

The possibilities for teaching materials are endless. I've shot, all at the spur of the moment, amulet vendors in Manila's Quiapo district, shelves in a Mercury Drugstore selling dozens of brands of skin whiteners, rows upon rows of sachet products in a "sari-sari store" [neighborhood variety store].

Photocopiers

More recent models of digital cameras have such good close-up functions that they're really almost like portable photocopiers. I use them to take a picture of the white board after a particularly interesting class discussion, or a meeting, where the most important words and ideas have been written. That way you can review it later, even typing in the text into the computer and printing it out for the students or participants in the meeting.

This "photocopier" function is useful as well for converting photographs from books and magazines into teaching materials. In the past, we had to make slides to project on the screen. Now, you can just take a digital shot from a book and show it on the computer. I've used this photocopier-slides function for everything from maps to the lesions of different diseases.

The last Kodak digital camera I got has a "text" function that adjusts the settings so you can take fairly decent pictures that will show the words on a page. I say "fairly decent" because obviously you can't get down to very small fine print. But it's good enough if all you want is to do an electronic clipping of a newspaper or magazine for quick reference: an ad, a photograph, even recipes.

You can also use the close-up function for taking pictures of important documents like your passport and credit cards when you travel. If you lose them, you can quickly report the loss with all the details.

Digital Zen

We return now to the original function of cameras: preserving memories. Some teachers ask students to submit a small ID picture that they then use as memory aids, but I never did that because the ID pictures often look very different from the person.

Besides, I was younger then, with a better memory. Now with more senior moments, I've turned to the digital camera for help. At the beginning of a new semester, I take digital pictures of my students in groups and then print out the photographs so they can identify themselves. The poses are more natural, and the pictures current. I have a large digital file now of students. Who knows, someday one of them might become a president, or the country's most wanted criminal, or both, and the Inquirer can use his photograph from his days at the University of the Philippines.

The whole point of digital photography is that it allows so much more spontaneity, for people having their picture taken, as well as for the one doing the "kodakan." You can be quicker as well to grab a photo opportunity ... the first blooming lotus in a pond, a dragonfly in the garden, a child's first steps.

I do worry about how digital photography might reinforce our desire for instant gratification. My Yna, at age one and a half, had learned to pose for a digital shot and then reach out for the camera wanting to look at her image.

Recently while conducting some biological anthropology research in a coastal area, I chanced upon a school of tiny fish in the shallow waters. I didn't have my camera, and thought of rushing back to get it but then decided to stay put and just enjoy looking at the fish as they made their way, leisurely and gracefully, through the water and into the sunset.

Someday soon, I'll bring Yna back to that beach and remind her of the Zen of digital photography: There's gratification too in waiting, in resisting the compulsion to capture everything on film or a memory card. Bravo for the digital camera and digital memories, but our fondest, more precious memories are best kept in the mind's eye and in the heart.