Pictures Matter, Take Them...

By: LANISHA PORTER

​I love taking pictures. To the common eye most would assume my love for pictures is a suggestion of my own conceit but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
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Pictures for me are only but a way to keep a tiny piece of now as I go into the future.

There are few momentous occasions that I entrust to human memory alone. I like hard copies of my best memories. To me, the human memory is subjective and extremely fragile sometimes escaping to the far recesses of our mind—and even being completely erased by time. While memory leaves occasion open to interpretation, there’s a sureness that’s comes with a picture. ​

Someday I’m sure time take will take its effect on me and I’ll wither away into lesser. My body confined by the new rules of wiser age. Less speed, less flexibility, less firmness, softer bones, softer beauty—time pushing me aside to make room for the new and better generations.

With this in mind, I take pictures to remember me. In my gift of youth. To immortalize the pieces of life I will miss once they have passed. To maybe show my own kids someday previews of my past life. 

This exercise isn’t something I make exclusive to just myself either. I also extend the same forethought to others around me. Whenever I reckon a moment has sentimental interest, I capture it. Even if it makes me look awkward or is seen as an invasion of privacy. My years long cache is large...consisting of moments like the one I’m about to tell you.

One day I was working alongside a friend and their family readying a residential property. At some point we were assigned to gardening. The grandfather was passing us instruction about laying the soil. 

Whenever I reckon a moment has sentimental interest, I capture it. Even if it makes me look awkward or is seen as an invasion of privacy.

A complete moment of revelation for me.

Here was a grandfather sowing a seed of knowledge to his descendants while planting actually seeds on their property. It instantly reminded me of the idea of generational wealth; both in spirit and blessings. 

I found the exchange worthy of being immortalized. Quietly and discreetly I canonized the moment hoping my camera would frame the essence of what was showing up in my own eyes.

Years later, that moment remains a sweet keepsake now that the grandfather has passed away. 

In fact, that moment I stole away for my own camera roll was one of few photos my friend had with their grandfather. 

That said to say this…you don’t realize how much pictures mean until it’s the only thing of that person we have left. Take them!