Having practiced photography for a long time, an image often forms in my mind before I even press the shutter. When I face a subject, my intention of "how I want to capture them" takes the lead, and the photo easily becomes stained with my own "fingerprints." I began to worry that these traces might sometimes become dominant over the subject.
Does recreating the image from my mind in reality truly mean capturing the person as they are?
I looked back at photos I took more than ten years ago. Within them lived things that do not appear in a photograph—conversations, sounds, and the very atmosphere of that moment. Once, someone told me, "Take good care of your photos," and another said, "You have a way of disappearing when you shoot." These words, spoken long ago, resurfaced from the back of my mind to remind me of what is important. The children in those photos looked so genuine that I felt a longing to meet them again.
On this day, my wife was cutting my son’s hair.
Looking at this photo, where even his face is not shown—I wonder if, ten years from now, I will be able to remember the conversation we had today.
