Chasing the past : Are we invited?

In my generation I find there is an obsession with the ‘vintage’ and ‘retro’ when scrolling on social media. Everyone’s buying digital cameras released in years they weren’t alive and editing photos with ‘retro film’ filters even when we have access to high quality cameras through our phones. I am personally guilty of this trend, yet acknowledge there’s a sense of irony to it. We are attempting to capture a time we never lived, using tools that don’t truly connect us to the reality of that period. This creates a kind of naivety or even superficiality in our attempt to relive or replicate an era that wasn’t ours and a time we didn’t exist. 

Whilst scrolling on TikTok I was presented with numerous tutorials on how to easily make my photos and videos look dated. Above links : https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdAPTBSS/ , https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGdAP7fwJ/

This takes me to archival footage, yes it is edited and fragmented yet it was true and real. It holds a kind of authenticity that digital filters cannot replicate. These images were once real, offering us a rawness that makes the past tangible in a way that modern recreations can’t. Whether driven by a desire to understand history or simply a fascination with the aesthetics of a time we didn’t witness, there’s a deep urge to experience the past and archival footage allows a true platform to do so. Perhaps we just want to feel a connection to something we deem cool or different, or perhaps we simply enjoy how it looks, which again is something I too am guilty of. 

This leads me to a lingering question: In the future, when the next generations look back at the photos and videos of our time, will they see an accurate reflection of our era? Or will they misunderstand or misinterpret the way we lived, perhaps even imagining a version of ourselves that never truly existed? It’s an unsettling thought, but it highlights the ongoing relationship between memory, media, and the way we construct our histories.