Will today's school photos be tomorrow's memories?
Will today's school photos be tomorrow's memories?
This past weekend, I had the pleasure of photographing a wedding. As is often the case at these big celebrations, a slideshow chronicled the couple’s life together: their first steps, birthdays, vacations… and, of course, their school photos.
As I watched them flash across the big screen, I found myself smiling. These portraits—sometimes a bit dated, sometimes very representative of their era—told a story far greater than that of a simple photograph. They captured a childhood, a personality already taking shape, and a time when everything seemed simpler.
These images also brought back my own memories.
My uncle Denis was a school photographer. When I was a child, I often served as a model so he could try out his new backdrops. I remember one inspired by Harry Potter, another with a geography theme, and many other imaginary worlds designed to spark the children’s imaginations in front of the camera.
At the time, these designs were modern. They represented the very best of their era. Today, they sometimes strike us as a bit nostalgic, and sometimes even amusing. It’s not because they were any less beautiful, but simply because tastes, fashions, and trends change.
School photography hasn't lost its purpose. It has evolved. Like everything else in our society, it has modernized.
At La Récré School Photography, we’ve made a different choice: to focus on natural light and on the child just as they are, without props that might go out of style over the years. We strive to create timeless portraits, where what catches the eye isn’t a prop or a trend, but each child’s smile, gaze, and personality.
Will the photos we take today still seem just as relevant twenty years from now, when they, in turn, are projected onto the walls of a wedding hall?
Honestly, I have no idea.
Because, deep down, that might not be the right question.
What matters isn’t whether the photo is still “in style.” What matters is how it makes us feel. It will remind us of the journey we’ve taken, our schoolyard friendships, our early years of learning, the faces that have grown up, and that time in our lives when everything seemed possible.
Photographs stand the test of time far better than trends.
They become the silent witnesses to our history.
And one day, when we least expect it, they reappear on a screen—at a wedding, of all places—and gently remind us that we were all once those children smiling for the camera.
That is undoubtedly where the true value of a school photo lies: not in its style, but in the memory it preserves, year after year.
