I know how strange it is to find an article about photography, on a photography blog, without the article having a single illustrative photograph. It’s like visiting a library and finding it empty of books 😉
Unless the books are hidden behind a second wall, well concealed, out of reach of prying hands.
Insignificant events such as the fall of a few drops of water, the cruel and capricious fate of a tree leaf or the endless wait of a goose for a crumb of bread enclose unique moments in your life. Your small and insignificant experiences are your “personalized” version of the world, only you experience what you experience in the precise way in which you experience it. Only you see what you see from wherever you are. From your hiding place behind the viewer you dominate the world, your world. Everything that comes under your control becomes immortal and becomes contagiously human, expressive, alive: Pipo’s challenging gaze in his basket, Rafaela’s questions that remain unanswered, or Jacobo’s very serious and ambitious plans for the future.
Among all the forms of communication that have been and have been, I believe that photographic expression is the most sincere. Every time you shoot with your camera you capture a promise, you portray a hope, you spread an emotion. You turn stories into memories that very few paid attention to.
Facing the uncertain and hidden face of the future, the unattainable dreams of people, the fears that precede the great leaps, the long, anguished and murderous waits, or the cold moments of bewilderment and blindness, there are the small moments full of laughter, the warm afternoons with your grandmother or the fidelity promises you made one day to your best friend. It is the legacy, your emotional legacy as a photographer.
Every time you shoot a photo, believe me, you modify to a lesser or greater extent the life of one, tens or even thousands of people, those who see, enjoy and live each one of your photographs.
Each of the photos that you have just seen in this text (you clicked on the links, right?) has sparked an avalanche of connections between your neurons. You just lived 19 little stories. You know Jacob. You hadn’t even noticed.
That is the power behind photography.
If you have a camera, that’s the power you have.
Thank you for continuing to take photos, for continuing to create emotions, capturing light and telling stories. Above all, thank you for sharing your hobby with me.
Mario,