Photography Anonymous

A pair of tiny Mary-Janes and ruffled socks stirred anxiously in anticipation. Ms. Bush’s kindergarten classroom leered ominously over our small heads, making my friend Corinne’s knuckles whiten and eyes instinctively shoot downwards. My navy blue Chuck-Taylors, however, scampered towards the doors eagerly. Seeing this opportunity to embark upon the unknown awakened a part of me that hadn’t fully formed yet; but this relentless thirst for the new and unexplored started early and only heightened as I grew older.

I crossed the national border for the first time when I was in first grade. I began to photograph the places I visited when I was in fourth grade. Ever since I purchased my first Nikon point-and-shoot, I have not been able to get my eye out of the viewfinder. My fascination with preserving moments began early - my mother used to ask me why I didn’t capture the Facebook-esque portraits of people standing and smiling. I, offended, would explain that I captured subjects, not people, and moments, not stagnation. These “moments,” of course, included several dozen photos of rain gutters and pigeons - but I nevertheless prided myself on the glimpse into an idea, a person, a place as I snapped photos by the second.

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