Alright photographers, there’s a new photography book in town. One with a roster of some very talented photographers, might I add. Instead of showcasing their work, Photographs Not Taken is a collection of photographers’ essays about failed attempts to make a picture.
Editor Will Steacy asked each photographer to abandon the conventional tools needed to make a photograph––camera, lens, film––and instead make a photograph using words, to capture the image (and its attendant memories) that never made it through the lens. In each essay, the photograph has been stripped down to its barest and most primitive form: the idea behind it. This collection provides a unique and original interpretation of the experience of photographing, and allows the reader access to a world rarely seen: the image-making process itself.
“I longed for this moment to stay preserved, as if it would become more real if I could hold it captive on film. Or that my story would be more intriguing if I could prove what it looked like. The photograph not taken, a portrait of what we had become, the fear that my family had failed me, the confrontation of unconditional love, a portrait of uncertainty. Instead, I sat with my hands tucked against the worn-out wood of the picnic tables, watching and listening to the sounds of what we were able to be for a moment.”
You can order the book here.
I feel like that all the time…
