How to Remember Your Life?

The title of my post was inspired by Johnny Harris’s video. Johnny is a filmmaker/Journalist at Vox, an online new site that covers issues from the Middle East to Putin, the novel Corona Virus,Climate Change and so on.

So when a friend sent me a link to watch the video, I had flashbacks.As an amateur photographer, I have always faced dilemma’s with my camera, “How to live in the moment and take a picture?” Sounds pretty simple, but I am sure there are budding photographers out there that will empathize with me.

I live in one of the most beautiful parts of India,in the Himalayas. I am surrounded by beauty, and yet sometime last year I decided to live in the moment only. I had a camera, I just never took pictures for the fear of being shy.

I have heard friends or strangers say they find it easier to take pictures of the locals once they know them.I find it to be the exact opposite for me.

In my mind, I have this conception that they have respected me enough to let me live with them, get to know them as well as their children.I wouldn’t want to be violating any sort of trust. So I put my camera and phone away.

I’m glad I didn’t put my phone away from this. Meet Rukmani, we were peeling rajama on her terrace along with her two year old sister, Sristi in Uttarakhand while my friends were off on a trek. This was a perfect example of striking a balance between a picture and a story

So watching John Harris video made me realize some realities of that dilemma.

Firstly I learnt that when we take a picture we are usually capturing the visual aspect of it.

But when we live in the moment, we take in the sounds around us, how we are feeling. Striking a balance is the whole journey of photography. He gave an example of a bird. That if he had just taken the picture of the bird, he probably wouldn’t remember it.He managed to balance taking a picture and living in the moment that he was able to convey the story to us.

There comes some sort of peace when you know you’re not the only one facing dilemma’s like this one in life.