October 22, 2022

We take it for granted that time is an objective, linear, and constant presence in our lives. After all, it seems difficult to imagine a life that exists outside of time. Yet, as proven by Matthew McConaughey’s reaction in Interstellar upon his character’s return to the spacecraft, he discovers that decades have passed on Earth in the hour he was on another planet: Time, by itself, might extend beyond our conventional understanding of time as a linear 24 hours, 7 days a week.

Click. A snap on the camera captures a moment in time, whether it is a fresh graduate collecting his degree scroll or a couple raising their glasses to a toast at their wedding. Before the age of smartphones, we printed photographs and arranged them neatly into albums that tell stories of our past. Most of us still keep troves of them tucked away in old drawers, documenting scenes where our memories fail us.