9 March 2008
AM I A SOUL THIEF?
I don’t know why, but somehow between 1:59am and 3:00am today I had the incredible urge to take every camera I own and smash them against a brick wall. I’ve never had an urge like this before and already it’s gone.
Still, sometimes I wonder if, despite my incredible love for photography, they are taking something away from us. Perhaps they’re stealing a moment in time best left stamped upon our memories instead. I think this is because whenever I look at a photograph — whether mine or someone else’s — I feel a sense of loss. That I should be there instead of here.
Maybe the Indians had it right. Strange that I still feel sheepish whenever I try and take a candid of a person on the street. Every time I feel like I’m invading their privacy, in public.
Maybe I’m just feeling grouchy because I haven’t actively been taking photographs in a few weeks. There’s just so many other things going on in my mind.
Maybe I oughta just shut up and take more photos.
Nooooo - the photos you take are *so* amazing - and they *do* capture instants that would otherwise cease to exist. Neurology and psychology research shows (unequivically) that human memory is (at BEST) hit-or-miss. The more time elapsed between an event and its recollection, the more likely you are to MISremember it. It’s not an intentional thing (usually) it’s just that our brains are plastic, always changing, connecting A & B & then V which overrides, just a little, the connection to F, etc. Your photos (and by “your” I mean both the ones you’ve taken and posted that I have seen and the ones I’ve taken of you that I have still) are precious to me, because they’re solid - and memory never is. :)
13 May 2008: 12:10 pm
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