What a Photograph Means to Me

(A Creative Piece)

I believe anyone can take a great photograph. Truly. Anyone. And maybe some people think that makes it less of an art. I’m not worried about whether someone believes it is an art or not. That doesn’t matter to me. Photography holds a place in my heart because it has allowed me to understand why I am who I am. Through the images I take, I have been able to watch myself grow. 

But what does a photograph mean to me? 

A photograph means memory. It means life. It means death. It means holding onto a moment for just a second longer to feel it a little more. It means that it is okay to let go of the past. A photograph means that I want to show you how I see my world. There’s a reason we feel so inclined to take photographs of the people we love. Trust me my camera roll is full of them—the people who mean the most to me. And, there’s a reason we don’t take photos of certain people or certain things. Because we don’t want those moments to last forever—maybe for good, maybe for bad.

Shh. A photograph means take a breath. It means stop. Look. Do you see that? Look. Stop. Wait, yes. There it is. There it is! A photograph means being in the right place at the right time. Or maybe the wrong place at the right time. A photograph means this moment is for me. It means this moment is for all of us. It means I see the world individually. It means look at me! It means look at you. It means look at the sunset. No, really, look. Look at how beautiful the world is. Look at how terrifying the world is. Look at it. It means my life is mine and your life is yours. A photograph means humanity.

It’s funny, though. I love to write. I love to just sit in my bed and type away my worries. My pain. My joy. My days. I love to watch people pass by as I take out a very specific black pen and flip through wrinkled pages of the scratched-up journal that lives at the bottom of my bag. I take it out to let it breathe—breathe stories of my past or how I want my future to turn out. I love to write about the strangers on the street. Who are they? I love to write about me. I love to write about you. But those are words. There’s only so much they can do.

Some things I can't say with words. And yes, there is the cliché of “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Yes. In a sense, I do agree. But it is more than that, to me. I can tell you what I saw today. I can tell you how that person was lying on the grass and staring at the sun. But I can show you exactly the angle I was looking at them. I can show you the way the sunlight hit the top of their knee and reflected back onto their face making them squint ever so slightly. A tear shined in the corner of their eye. I can show you the way the moon was just shy of the sun, almost like it was trying to kiss it goodbye before disappearing into the clouds. I can show you through my eyes. I can show you through my touch. 

A photograph, to me, means connection. It means love.