When Did Our Walls Go Quiet?
When you walked into your grandparents’ home, you didn’t just see furniture or decor. You saw faces, memories, and stories on the walls. Weddings, babies, family gatherings. Proof that love lived there.
Now walk into many of our generation’s homes. The design is beautiful. The aesthetic is thoughtful. But often, the walls are quiet. No faces. No stories.
We take more photos than any generation in history, yet we display fewer than any generation before us. The digital age promised convenience, but quietly removed presence. Social media promised connection, but quietly created distance. Our memories moved into phones, and our walls stopped telling our stories.
Portraits were never just decoration. They are our emotional anchors. They remind us who we love, who raised us, who stands by us, who mattered. They don’t just show us faces, they make us feel grateful for the life we’ve been given.
A portrait doesn’t just preserve a face. It preserves a relationship, a story, a feeling.
And maybe part of the reason we stopped hanging them is not because we care less, but because the process quietly changed. Before digital, we were given prints. They arrived in our hands. They were easy to frame, easy to hang, easy to live with.
Now, our images arrive as files. They are easy to store, but inconvenient to finish. We must choose, sort, print, and decide. And when we have thousands of images, each one quietly loses its weight. Not because it matters less, but because there are so many of them.
So we delay. We postpone. We scroll past. Until our memories slowly become invisible.
That is why my business is built the way it is, leaving my clients with something ready to hang on their walls or display in their home.
Because I don’t believe our portraits should live in the clouds. I believe it should live on walls. I believe people deserve to hold their memories, hang their stories, and feel their gratitude every day. Not someday. Not when they get around to it. But now.
Because our walls don’t just show our style. They show our life.
Vicky Champagne