Is It Wrong to Keep Photos of Your Ex?

Today on the radio there were having a conversation about keeping photos of your ex. Is it right or is it wrong? There were so many opinions about this and personally I think it’s wrong.

I use to date this guy who kept albums of all of his ex-girlfriends. In fact I think about a year into the relationship; he actually sat me down and showed me all of these albums. I thought it was very weird and honestly couldn’t figure it out. I sat through roughly 2 hours of him describing each and every detail of past girlfriends; where the pictures were taken and what significance this played in his life. At first I thought “Wow, this guy is open and honest and sharing all of his past experiences with me.” I continued to sit there and listen to him as he went on about each and every one. I thought, ok he has nothing else to hide and we should be good.

Then we moved in together as all young couples do. As we were moving boxes of his stuff into my place, I noticed one labeled ‘Photos’. I thought to myself “I wonder if he’s bringing the photo albums of his ex’s into our place?” I kept a pretty close eye on that box and when it was time to start unpacking, I headed for that one first. Low and behold all of those albums were there and not only did he want them unpacked he wanted them on display for ‘easy access’. I thought, “Easy access for what?”

As time went on and we continued to ‘share our lives together’, I thought great, the first thing to go will be those photo albums. But no, if anything he actually started to document our relationship more and more and loved having it in photo albums. Then he started an album just with pictures of me. Honestly, this was starting to sound like a horror movie right? This is when I started to really wonder if this was just me that found it weird OR was I making a big deal out of nothing.

At this time we were having problems in our relationship and I could see it falling apart at the seams. I was trying to work things out and here he was taking more and more pictures of me and putting them into an album. I honestly never thought too much of it until a friend of mine had mentioned that he (the b/f) thought we were on our last legs and that he was taking as many pictures of me as he could to remember me by.

As I thought about this more and more, I realized that those photo albums didn’t just represent a time in his life but that he was using them as some kind of trophy. Once I discovered this as it got closer and closer to our break up I started to collect all the pictures of me. Yes, I know this sounds odd, but I didn’t want to be sitting in a photo album like another conquest. Never mind having his new flame have to sit through an additional hour of him describing ‘all about me’. So when we broke up I took every picture of me out of the house, I even took the negatives…I am NOT going to be a part of a trophy collection…hence the reason I disagree with keeping a photo of an ex.

If you're wondering if I ever kept any pictures of him...I've attached one for your viewing pleasure.