What Photography Really Produces

This is a chapter from the book A Lesser Photographer.

The print isn’t the end product of your photography. Neither is the screen.

The end product is the joy of being present when photographing.

Photography is a rare deep dive into our own brains. It’s an appreciation of light, patterns, and texture—the things we tend to ignore in our daily lives for what’s more urgent.

It’s keeping a lot of us sane. It’s even making some of us happy.

Physical and digital products of our photography come and go. They’re easily forgotten. As are we.

The only thing that lasts is our awareness of the world around us. Even that will end someday. But what a way to spend a life.