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486 Lilia Uzlowa functions by memorizing different images of the events rather than films that remain in our thoughts” (Ziehe & Hägele 2006: 1).* The visualization and the choice of the motifs on the face are both an objective and a subjective reflection of other reality. Which objects are to be photographed and what combinations they will be used in for the postcard depends on the state of the affairs in society and on the targeted user. The creation of positive notions of the cultural model and its “advertising” is one of the main social functions of the postcard (Rowley 2013: 31). In the personal domain, the postcard fulfils the same functions, known from everyday life, most strongly presented in “tourist” correspondence, travel, leisure, and family life. They, the postcards and the photographs, on their part, influence the type, form and mood of the message. Postcards, today a dying form of communication (owing to an abundance of other communication formats and platforms—Internet, e-mails, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp) have features that automatically turn them into an indispensable source of authentic information about the modern cultural model and personal priorities. These features are the visualization, and respectively, the subjective choice of the right motif, the link with the point of time, the individual expression, the contents of the texts, the intransience and so forth. Postcards can exist “forever”, unless deliberately destroyed by us their creators and authors. In the texts, the autobiographical element predominates; especially when postcards address relatives and friends—the message is within the broad context of the time (Figs 2—4).° At the time of institutional regimes and dictatorship the autobiographical character is shifted, almost forcibly erased, so that no information about the existing other conditions is revealed. A “third” message, manipulated with propaganda purposes is created, which has nothing to do with the personal experience, nor with the environment (Fig. 5).° In the beginning (introduced in Germany 1870—Austria 1869— England 1843, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol’), the presence of the postcard was restricted to the function of communication. It lacked colour, charm, and individuality. Monochromatic illustrations were photographs of engravings, etchings, different kinds of graphic prints, black-and-white photography and so forth.’ Through colour photography, postcard’s visual “self-esteem” increased * Original text: “Fotografien sind schön und nützlich, sie provozieren Gefühle: Freude, Trauer, Aversionen und sentimentale Stimmungen. ... Unser visuelles Gedächtnis von öffentlichen Ereignissen funktioniert weniger mit Filmen als vielmehr mit stehenden Bildern, die sich in unseren Gedanken einprägen.” > Postcards nos. 99, December 19, 1957; 20, July 3, 1965; 6, July 7, 1986. ° Postcard no. 43, July 25, 1980. 7 John Calcoll Horsley designs lithographs for “A Christmas Carol” and hand-coloured the first Christmas card for Sir Henry Ode (Arkarian-Russell 2001: 2). 8 Archive of family Amirchanjanz, author's property (Uzlowa 2010).
