Looking for perfection in photography, spending fortunes on the latest hardware and gadgets, pretending to be a photography god, are all nonsense. What counts as non-professionals is evocation. And sometimes it’s not something you can convey to anyone else.
This is one of my most favourite photos ever. It was taken with a crappy late 90s digital camera (Sanyo SR08) in early 2001. There is no composition thought. No fancy lighting. It was spur of the moment. It is a photo of an ex-girlfriend (already ex at the time) in her flat in Madrid, sitting in the sun with her wee dog on an April Sunday morning. But to me it represents happyness.
She probably doesn’t remember that photo. In fact she probably hasn’t ever seen it. It means nothing to anyone other than me. But even nearly 25 years later, I still think about that photo once in a while. I’ve taken hundreds of thousands of photos since that I can’t rememeber. But this one I remember.
It’s not well framed (the subject is bang center). It’s not well lit (overexposed in places; sensors at the time had a small dynamic range). It’s not full of millions of pixels (1MP). It’s not super sharp (slow shutter). Overall, it’s garbage. Most people would have deleted it on the pot.
I didn’t. The quietness of that sunday morning. The stillness of the air. Her attention to that dog. The relaxed atmosphere. I knew already at the time that it was a special moment for me. All that made me keep it 25 years and I’m glad I did.
Does that photo convey those feelings? It is kind of static and quiet. But as a viewer, do you feel the warm but not hot sun? Do you hear the street, with neighbours chatting in the distance (the Spanish like nothing more than chatting in the street)? Do you know how happy that dog was? Do you feel as relaxed as I was after a week walking accross Madrid for hours every day? Probably not. That photo is a complete failure.
Sometimes you just have to accept that a photo is just yours.
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