By Abe Villarreal

I miss seeing pictures that showed people in not-so-perfectly practiced positions. Like the ones that capture us in uncomfortable moments and those with friends and family members making faces that weren't meant to be photographed.

How we want to be remembered for eternity seems to change with each generation. What we used to try to memorialize in a Kodak moment has now become a filtered-Instagram post. Today's photos make it difficult to know what is real. I think what I miss seeing on printed little squares of glossy paper is people simply being people.

When I look back at pictures from throughout the last 100 years, the kinds of feelings that run through my mind give me a sense of knowing who people were and what they were thinking. I could tell when the photo was taken because it looks a little too yellow or a little too brown.

The furniture patterns, the height of the rug, the width of the TV set. What we wore and how we wore it. They were all giveaways to knowing how we lived and what was happening at the time.

I could tell that people were ok with being ordinary during ordinary moments. Friends outside a nightclub where almost all you could see was the light of the flash on their faces. Old neighbors on street corners, just standing there with a smile captured in one take. No asking for a second shot to show their good side.
When I look at pictures of my grandparents' generation, they are usually a little creased on the corners. Sometimes they have water damage, but one thing is for sure, the people in the photos are just who they appear to be. The clothes they have on weren't put on just to look their best in a photo. They aren't always standing next to colorful flowers. A skyscraper or national landmark isn't always positioned so that there is just enough room to show the people and the building equally.

And yet, the photos are perfect. People are not always staring directly into the camera. Sometimes what they are holding is blurry because of hand moments. Photobombing wasn't a concept. People appeared in backgrounds because people are always in backgrounds in populated places.

I like the photos that make me wonder exactly what they must have been thinking. Are they walking away or towards the camera? Are they speaking to someone just outside the picture? Are they waving goodbye or hello?

I also like it when not everyone is smiling or standing in a perfect row. I like it when someone is caught with a spoon in his mouth or a stain on a shirt. I like it when a picture is taken for the sole reason of immortalizing how people were feeling, not noticing all the complexities and details of what was happening around them. It's nice to see life with imperfections and mistakes. Just like life always has been.

If we start taking pictures like we used to, we'll pass along to the next generation a more realistic history of who we were and how we lived. What we felt and how we reacted. Life in good times and bad. Smiles and frowns. Moments of gratefulness and also moments that will be left open to interpretation.

I hope the generation sees us for who we were, not who we wanted to seem.

Abe Villarreal writes about life and culture in southern New Mexico. He can be reached at abevillarreal@hotmail.com.