There’s something possessive, even aggressive, in our
language about
doing photography.
“I took that photograph.”
“I captured that image.”
“I shot that picture.”
I prefer to avoid such language and its underlying point of
view.
I look upon a photograph as something you find,
and sometimes it even finds
you.
A photograph is something you come upon,
something you connect with,
something you’re allowed the opportunity to experience.
I believe that sometimes an image calls out to be made;
in that way, sometimes it knows
better than you do.
I believe there is a deep sense in which a photograph that
has
something of eternity in it
cannot be made by you but can only be awakened in
you.
One January day while walking beside a stream in northern
Michigan,
this image beckoned silently
to me,
inviting my response.
By no means did I capture this photograph.
It captured me.
It still does.
