There exists that story where primitive tribes in the vast Amazonian jungles feared cameras because they could steal your soul.
Funny thing is, if you think about it, they kind of do. A photograph of you, right this very instant, will never exist again. The same moment, your age down to the second will change a blink later. Nothing will ever be that moment again.
Each day we are on this spinning rock is another moment in which we live in a world that is all our own. I won't get super existential-ly about it, but my soul, in this moment is in a perpetual state of change. I will be a different me in a few minutes or even seconds from now. Time does not stop nor will my personal growth or aging.
A photograph of a person will forever record or steal that moment from the wastes of our inability to remember everything, ever. A photograph is a stolen moment of time of our soul in a specific state.
I try to capture as many moments as possible. My kids, friends, family, loved ones, and strangers all grace my library of film negatives and digital files. I've stolen many moments and they will always be mine.
I was thinking of music today and singing in my car when I remembered an old friend who had since passed on. My soul is nothing like it was back in those days and I realized I captured a moment in a somewhat tortured man's life where he was happy. Surrounded by music he created in a moment that will never exist again. A moment I can never share with him again. I played one song with him and another friend during a performance only once. It did not seem like a pivotal moment in time, but looking back, it was a huge moment for us all to play together.
I will never forget that music and the few images I have of him will never forget his soul.
R.I.P. Rant
