As such that images are crucial to the creation of thought, they are a main component in our memories. Memories are just glimpses at the past and sometimes the future. They have nothing to do with the present but that which is present may become a memory. This is the way in which photographs become a marker of the past and encapsulate our memory of the photographic image as it may have been when the moment was itself unfolding in the present. Therefore, photographs are a sort of mental time machine. They can transport our conscious imagination to another time and place, especially if the photographer and viewer are the same person.