I think I must look at photographs the wrong way. I stare past the subject’s smiling faces to search through the little things in the background. In my childhood photo albums I look past the photo of Thanksgiving dinner to see the plump arms of my grandmother, soft as pillows. I glance over the picture of my 7th birthday to search out the blurry outline of a stuffed kitten I slept with until it disappeared, the shirt I wore each summer that always smelled of fresh cut grass, and the paneling in my old bedroom that I could always see faces in late at night. None of these things exist anymore and somehow it’s these little pieces that speak to me more than the posed pictured ever could…those little details that make up a life.
Maybe I’m the only one who sees thing in that way.
But somehow I doubt it.
Lawson Family Portrait – 2007
What about you? Are there any pictures that you treasure for what they weren’t meant to show. Are you taking pictures of the day-to-day things you might forget to treasure until their gone?…your child’s toes, your fathers hands, a scar, the tattoo you never reveal.
Show me. Post it on your blog or email it to me. Best photo/story gets an original painting by a just-turned-three year old.