the way we were

On one sunny afternoon in Chicago last month, I sat in Millennium Park with my fellow Shutter Sisters Andrea Scher and Karen Walrond. And while we were playing with our cameras and contentedly munching on hotdogs, Karen said something about my photography:

"When I look at your photos, I don't feel like I'm looking at something that you actually saw, I feel like I'm looking at a memory of yours, and the emotions around it at that time."

This was one of the most enlightening moments in my life. Karen had just answered the very question I'd been asking myself for so many years.

I paused for a while.

And then I couldn't stop thinking, meditating and contemplating all the possibilities that were unfolding before my eyes.

Photography is a lot, lot of different things. It is an art form, a medium, the expression of one self, of a thought, an opinion, an emotion. It is about capturing beauty, and sharing it. What I realized though, with Karen, is that for me photography is about extending a moment beyond the limits of time, distance and memory. It is giving me, and all of us, the wonderful ability to hold onto that one moment, and how we felt at that moment. How amazing is that?

So today I invite you to share an image that reminds you, and is the reflection of how you were feeling the moment you shot it, an image that is truly the memory of a moment you greatly treasure. If you feel like it, please also share the story.

Note: blurry images are welcome.

Comments

[HBee]

Hi, great blog!


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[Marcie]

Photography - for me - is all about the experience..the feeling..the memory of what any particular image evokes.This- for example - reminds me of my summers spent with dogs and people in Vermont watering holes:
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=879

This - for example - reminds me of my childhood Samoyed (the big white one):
http://www.marciescudderphotography.com/index.php?showimage=876

Irene - you put so many of my thoughts into beautiful words. Thank-you for that.

[Carmen Torbus]

Beautiful shot and I love the way Karen described your photography.

[Kathy Winter]

That is such a great description of your work!

[Christy]

It seems that our children are growing up before our eyes. I caught this shot of my two boys in a group of kids. They were still and I was curious as to why this was the case. Until I saw the girls. Ah ha!

http://yankeeinontario.blogspot.com/2009/07/365200-july-20-neighborhood-posse.html

[beth]

shooting thru the view finder makes me feel talented and creative...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/29291473@N04/3803150675/in/photostream/

[ginny]

Being home for the summer (I'm a teacher) has given me so much time with my husband and son. Time to really see the father my husband has become. This picture makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and oh so grateful for them both.

http://ginny73.blogspot.com/2009/08/58.html

[georgia]

this is an amazing post. what a compliment to be told what karen told you. it is something that i would be honored to be told, as it is something i strive for with my pursuits regarding photography. and what an incredible photograph this is.

as i read this, a few recent posts in particular came to mind:
http://itsjusthowiseethings.blogspot.com/2009/08/get-away.html
and
http://itsjusthowiseethings.blogspot.com/2009/07/bowl-of-cherries.html
{blurry pics in this one}
and
http://itsjusthowiseethings.blogspot.com/2009/06/road-trips-go.html

but this is something i talk about often on my blog--these couple sentences resonated the most with me:
"What I realized though, with Karen, is that for me photography is about extending a moment beyond the limits of time, distance and memory. It is giving me, and all of us, the wonderful ability to hold onto that one moment, and how we felt at that moment. How amazing is that?"

it IS amazing. you are profoundly right. thanks for this post.

[djbeat]

wonderful post - i`ve often thought similarly of photography. & as an artist i used photos in my work because they can be at once a definitive moment in time & a story that is richly different in each person`s memory. that is, we never remember the same moment the same as others & on seeing a image for the first time our interpretation of that place or person comes from our own uniques & distinct experiences.

there are too many moments & memories - but this is of my most precious gift:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/djbeat/3288591453/in/set-72157613234200478/

[karen]

here's mine: http://www.karenika.com/individual/not_yet.html

this shot was taken 3 weeks before my first son was born. my husband and i drove down to la jolla shores late at night and i spent hours taking photos at night while listening to loud music on my ipod. i was very pregnant and the tide was very low. i remember feeling so very happy and fulfilled and peaceful.

[Puna]

It exactly what I hope people can see in my photography. So wonderful to see it in yours.

[Celine]

First time posting here - but love your blog!! Your post made me think why I love photography - to remember the moments... like yesterday

http://redsie05.blogspot.com/2009/08/love-yellow.html

[Patty Reiser]

I am still trying to discover what I want my photography to say. But I do know the one emotion that propels me in photography. Capturing that moment before it is gone.

Sixteen years ago next month will mark the passing of my first husband. Our daughter was but 10 weeks old at the time of his death. In that short amount of time, we never took a moment to take a family photograph. And that moment was lost forever with his untimely passing.

Here are a few moments I have captured during that time. http://pkphotography.us/2009/07/potd-tt27/

[leaca]

This is a shot that revealed to a young girl how beautiful she really was.
http://simplyblogged.blogspot.com/

[Liz//Tipping Point Photo]

Taken on film nine years ago from the balcony--my balcony--during my homestay in Paris:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tippingpointphoto/2988432048/in/set-72157608536753721/

I don't think I've ever tried to vocalize how this image makes me feel, but reading Julia Child's My Life in France this week has brought some of it back up. This image floods me with remembrance of an awakening, a broadening, an impassioned affirmation of life as it should be, the beauty in what frightens us, the opportunity in the unfamiliar, the importance of one's perspective, the tranquility of being at peace with the unknown of tomorrow because today is beautiful beyond words.

[Liz//Tipping Point Photo]

And PS--I really like Karen's description of your work! There is no higher compliment than this.

[Sarah - Ji]

Oh, Irene, this post describes perfectly my own approach to photography. Thanks for putting it so beautifully!

[Grace]

I can't share the photos, because I don't have them online, but there are a series of pictures that were taken of my friends and I on our last night together in college. The person who took them didn't know how to work the camera, so they are all out of focus and sort of half-lit. I loved it when I got them back and they turned out that way, becasue that's really how that time felt--not just because we were all drunk when they were taken, but because every picture shows us as if we are in motion, which we were, and as if it's dusk or dawn. That may not have been exactly what we looked liked that night, but it is certainly a good representation of what we felt like.

[Trude]

This image doesn't look like much, but for me its the embodiment of the summer we're having.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/trudem/3802228725/
Doors and windows wide open the moment its cool enough, new kittens dying to get outside, gorgeous golden light, lots of time at home. :)

[Ally]

http://acornalley.andieandlee.com/2008/03/23/silent-film/

[m]

http://www.creativevoyage.co.uk/node/197 I think all of my better photos are the ones which are like somelike of mysterious memory. I love that photo of the beach !

[Amy Bradstreet]

Photography for me is absolutely about capturing the moment, holding the memory and being present--if I'm paying enough attention to the details of the moment, I'm aware, I'm present. Here's an example of how grateful photography makes me feel, since only weeks have passed and I see changes already. http://onbradstreet.blogspot.com/2009/07/this-side-of-10.html

[Jessica]

I took these photos recently at a celebration for mother's day in Thailand at my school. The kids are so expressive, you can't help but feel whatever they were feeling. And so cute too!

http://quotidian-photography.blogspot.com/

[editorial photographers singapore]

miss my childhood too..used play at beach

[Jessica]

This post on my blog says it all for me.

http://quotidian-photography.blogspot.com/2009/08/one-year.html

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