illustration by Rob Pepper
The Photographs Not Taken is a collection of short essays by photographers about “the times they didn’t use their camera.” A little while back I linked to Michael David Murphy‘s online project Unphotographable, which takes quite the same approach – textual accounts of “pictures missed.”
The essays included in The Photographs Not Taken were collected by Will Steacy, a great photographer in his own right.
Many excellent photographers/friends have contributed to the project so far and I’m happy to be amongst the names: Alec Soth, Amy Elkins, Amy Stein, Andrew Moore, Benjamin Donaldson, Brian Ulrich, Chris Jordan, Christian Patterson, Dave Jordano, Debbie Fleming Caffery, Eirik Johnson, Elinor Carucci, Grant Willing, John Movius, Laura McPhee, Lewis Watts, Lisa Kereszi, Matt Salacuse, Michael Harlan Turkell, Misty Keasler, Nina Berman, Peter Riesett, Rachael Dunville, Rian Dundon, Shane Lavalette, Simon Roberts, Tim Davis, Timothy Archibald and Todd Deutsch.
I think my favorite would have to be “The Ladies’ Tee” by Tim Davis but anyone who knows me knows that I’m as much an admirer of his way with images as I am of his way with words.
Read all of the stories here.
4 Comments
January 18, 2008 – 10:55 pm
Great recommendation. This is exactly what I need right now.
January 19, 2008 – 2:15 am
Awesome site. It reminds me of Wim Wenders’ book, ‘Once.’ All the photos are accompanied with very short stories, yet many times he tells stories about moments he wasn’t able to photograph.
January 19, 2008 – 2:00 pm
Awesome! What a great idea. I loved Timothy ArchibaldÄôs story, reminds me of when I first picked up a camera.
January 24, 2008 – 11:38 pm
great stuff, again I thank you for all the inspiring this you show us here. this has happend to me on many occasion, when you see something so beautiful you just let it go, submerging into time