Unphotographable
Michael David Murphy has created Unphotographable, a site that uses text accounts of pictures missed.
I think the best part about this, is accepting what can never be recreated.
If Only 36 Showed Up: This is a picture I did not take
2017 was the first time I used a real film camera. This day in particular, was the first time I decided to use a black & white roll of film. I went down to the south shore of Long Island, to a marina surrounded by tall marsh grass. It was pretty cold, but windbreakers were fine, and it was fall around mid day. I was exploring with all of best friends at the time. We used to just go to places, to go places and it was just what we did. Not a single over processed thought or judgement, no outside world, just our own. Once I could drive, the distance and rarity of these places had expanded. I drive a small Toyota Camry, a sedan designed to transport a person from point A to point B. At 17, my immaturity should have never be overlooked. With my sedan, I drove up a muddy marshland hill, slid to a stop and parked. Walking around the drying and dead marsh, I shot photos. I took a couple of shots of the trash and debris of an old car that was left to rust, all littering the ground. Meanwhile my friends explored and imagined the past life of the vehicle and the area. One of my friends who would frequent these exploration trips with me was walking up to the car and with the sun of mid day on him, I shot a photo of his hand on the hood of the car on my B&W Ilford HP 5 plus film. The photo was in my mind a perfect encapsulation of our younger minds and portraying the curiosity that everyone has, on top of that a black and white drama. The photograph shows me relationships create almost all of my memory. I will never get this photo because when I got the film developed, the film was blurred and dark, from being a beginner film photographer.
I think it is good that I missed these shots.
” If we take photographs to remember, what do we do when we’re not taking photographs?” – Michael David Murphy