If you could take a selfie (or just a photograph in general) from anytime in history before cameras were available, what or where would it be?
I think for me it would be somewhere surrounded in mystery, the Pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge or Machu Picchu. Somewhere where we can only try to imagine what went on during the construction and the ways in which they completed it.
Would it be a place or a building? Would it be next to someone or something? It is pretty amazing to think we have only just left the era in which everything had to be written down for us to understand what went on and what life looked like. Where painting were the closest we got to photographs, and some paintings did a damn good job.
We can now screenshot life as we see it through our eyes without having to memorise it for us to describe later. No replicas or descriptions, the actual view. It is pretty incredible.
Let me know where you would tagged yourself in history if you had the chance.
Photo by Willian Justen de Vasconcellos on Unsplash
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Ancient India !
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That would be amazing, I would love to visit India in general!
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I’ve always wished time travel existed so I can catch a glimpse of what ancient Egypt looked like.
I love reading stories about the Pharaohs, priests, curses, rituals and of course, mummies. It’s fascinating!
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It sounds like such a fascinating time, with completely different use of language and ideologies! I would love to visit this era for sure.
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I think I would only want to tag myself somewhere if I could also have an influence on the surroundings, e.g. stopping some of the witch trials in which innocent people were killed. Not that I imagine they would listen to me, and they’d probably shove me onto the ducking stool next, but I would still try!
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These events are horrible, however I doubt I would be brave enough to attempt to stop them! That is why I find it important to talk about such issues today, to try to help prevent them occurring again, in what little ways I can.
You are a good person with great morals! And way braver than me :p
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Shortly before the extinction of the dinosaurs. Nature and landscape photography followed by what I would guess would be a spectacular sky as the asteroid approaches.
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I couldn’t imagine what that looked like… unimaginable. It would be great to be able to time travel but only view these events instead of having to physically be there, you know?
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Thinking about it, you could change evolution of whole families of species by the simplest thing. Not just stepping on something so beloved of science fiction writers, if some species sucked human blood millions of years before humans existed who knows the consequences. On the other hand, a selfie with a Triceratops would be neat.
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The butterfly effect… that is also fascinating to consider, how tiny things could lead to completely different outcomes…
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For me more important to have pictures in my mind!
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But the problem is the brain will only store them for so long! I like pictures in case the day comes where I cannot recall memories, even if I won’t recall being there at the time. But some of my favourite memories are the ones I rely on my mind for as I don’t have photographs 🙂
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Instead of looking at the camera, I would be looking at the primeval view in front of me. Maybe someone else could take a photo of the back of my head 😉 Anyway, I would be looking at the hills and valleys near my home 100 million years or so ago. Dinosaurs did roam Queensland and I’m pretty sure they would have strolled down to the Brisbane River to have a drink and bellow at each other while munching on marsupial Nimbadons. I can feel the earth rumbling beneath my feet, time to go…
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Haha, that would be incredible. Seeing a live dinosaur would be breathtaking. But at a safe distance, none of the Jurassic Park malarkey!
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Maybe times when life was not so much about things and experiences were more valued. When people had fun without worrying about wether it is captured or not .
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It is hard now for me to imagine a time before smartphones, even video footage back in the 90’s seems strange when you see people not on phones as much!
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The eruption of Vesuvius, from a “safe” distance.
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From a safe distance. 😂
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If there is such thing!
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Oh, sure, Pliny the younger witnessed the eruption first hand from the home of is Uncle, Misenum, north of the Bay of Naples. He wrote about it 25 years later in a letter.
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I actually looked up the event after your comment, and learned about Pliny the younger. Incredible!
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The Paris Exposition in the 1880’s at the opening of the Eiffel Tower.
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What a moment, the opening of what is now one of the most recognizable buildings in the world. Imagine being there!
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Can’t think of anything in particular.
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I am sure there must be something that will pop into your head at some point 🙂
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A front row seat at an Elvis Presley concert?
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Oh there you go! You would have to get there early in your time machine though to beat the other time travelling Elvis fans!
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Definitely!
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Oh wow, this is nostalgic, I remember doing the exact same thing in school! (Although my little surveys were in a notebook)
But yeah, maybe a hop on the TARDIS to the beginning of time? The mosh pit in some 2000/‘01/‘02 Muse summer festival performance? (I hadn’t even learned to walk at that time, but the videos look very cool.)
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The gigs did look epic back then! I remember really enjoying their 2004 gigs, around the release of Absolution. Great times.
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It’s been fourteen years since then!? It’s amazing how they still sound just as good! The only difference would be that you wouldn’t find them playing a daytime set now– they’re headliners!
But it must’ve been an amazing way to spend the day, the older gigs! Where was it though?
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Oh sorry, I should have stated that I wasn’t there to see them, I just got into them around then and checked out a lot of their footage.
New Born live at KROQ 2004 was a fantastic performance, as well as their Glastonbury gig and their Big Day out gigs in Australia. I would recommend ‘Stockholm Syndrome live at BDO 2004’ for their awesome outro of the original Psycho riff and ‘Hysteria live at Channel V 2004’. Amazing performances!
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Why do I feel like I’ve probably already seen all of these? xD
)
Muse are coming to Canada next summer, I’m so hoping I can get hold of a ticket! I’m the meanwhile, I’m just gonna live off YouTube (…oh, and like getting through my midterms
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Haha I’m sure you have! And that’s awesome, go to one of their shows for sure. Focus on midterms, but also focus on having great memories to look back on 🙂
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Not quite the same thing, but I have always wanted to be an American radio sound effects man in the 1930s and 1940s…
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Still counts! I find it fascinating how people sounded so different back then, just more well spoken and posh, both in the States and the UK.
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I would have to agree with the pyramids! That would be unbelievable to see being made!
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It really would! And would help to answer so many questions…
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I’m very curious about the gas chambers during the war…
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Such a sad time in history. I hope you don’t want to go and experience it though!
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I don’t… I’m just curious…
Have a great day!🙂
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You too!
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At a medieval ball! I always admired those colourful ball gowns and I even enjoy drawing them. I think it would be the closest I could get to the typical medieval fantasy setting I love so much when I read great stories. Also, the natural scenery must’ve been so much nicer and… more natural? Without any pollution and all 🙃
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Yeah, less pollution but probably a much worse era to live in! But that doesn’t mean I don’t find it a magical time, for the reasons you mentioned. Watching movies and seeing how they lived is fascinating to me too.
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I would want to go back to the time of the American Revolution when the Declaration of Independence was signed. What was going on in their minds. How did the delegates feel about starting this new idea called the United States knowing that any moment any one of them could be arrested and probably killed for treason.
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Another huge event in history! I also wonder if they could have imagined how successful and huge the United States would become economically and in other ways, and predicted it to become a superpower…
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There are lots of places/eras I would love to visit. If I have to make a quick choice I would choose the court of George III – but I’d want to be a guest and not a servant!
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Interesting choice! I am looking it up now as I don’t know much about this at all. But I can imagine being a guest was much more desirable than a servant!
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Sam – Great question. I think I would capture myself in the center of some major mystery, like at Roanoke after the boats headed back to England, hiding the Ark of the Covenant, or something like that. Not that the picture would give the answer to the question or solve the mystery. -Jill
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You’re a fan of mystery! I like it. There are so many fascinating events in history that would be great to jump back to, thanks for adding yours Jill 🙂
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You are most welcome.
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