“If you didn’t take the photograph, you weren’t there.” — Garry Winogrand
Sometimes you just can’t take the photo that you’d like to. Either the image passes by too quickly, or needs too much describing, or involves asking permission from people and I just don’t want to be exploitive and take the photo anyway. (A probably misremembered quote from Garry Winogrand again. Someone complained about him taking their photo and he said something like, “It’s my camera so it’s my photo.” Meh, not so sure I believe that.)
There are three photos I didn’t take in the last couple of days:
Photo 1: This one involved someone’s child, and I don’t take photos of children without asking permission. I was in a sports shop waiting for my friend to finish shopping. There was one of those punching bags for boxing in a corner, and a little girl ran up and hugged it. It was so adorable to see something used for a (potentially) violent act become the object of a hug. What if we all did that?
And an apology to boxers. Boxing is a sport with violent acts but not necessarily violent intentions. It’s not wonderful for the brains of those taking the hits, but it’s an ancient and, in my opinion, noble sport.
Photo 2: This would never have worked as a photo. Two sparrows were fluttering around my feet at a café. One was very young but flying, and the father (definitely a male sparrow), was collecting things for it to eat. The young one was old enough to fly but apparently had not figured out how to feed itself yet. I never knew that this link existed after a young bird could fly on its own.
We have the expression “to leave the nest” like that’s the end of it; the young bird grows up and it’s “Addio, genitori”. Apparently this isn’t correct. Or maybe this is a bird’s version of staying in its parents home in their childhood bedroom until it turns thirty?
Photo 3: There was a woman on the side of the road as we drove by. We had cars behind us and couldn’t slam on the brakes for the photo but we were both taken by how beautiful the image was. The weather was building up for a storm, but it was just a bit menacing with big clouds and wind. She was bending over picking beautiful purple flowers. She was wearing a hijab that flowed in the wind, her shirt and skirt were also streaming away from her. The flowers were swaying, pushed down by the gusts. The colors and the flow of the material and flowers were gorgeous. I don’t know if it would have worked to take a picture. Some of it was the wind, the movement. Maybe this should be a new TikTok idea: moving photos. Not videos, not photos, but something in between.
So I did not take those photos, but they are there in my mind. If I did a good job here, maybe they’re in your mind, too. I hope so. If not, you can find your own photos to keep among your memories,
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