I don’t know how to write well.
I don’t know how to draw well.
I don’t know how to operate a computer well.
I don’t know how to dance well.
I don’t know how to speak well.
I don’t know how to act well.

Ignorance is most certainly not bliss.

The only field I remotely have any knowledge in is photography. In a sense, it’s my way of “cheating” at life. Cheating by taking a moment of time and freezing it forever in a photograph. Via my camera, I can do things I’m normally unable to do. I can’t draw a person or talk too well about how great something is, but I can grab these things using photographs. It’s my freedom.

My eyes burn whenever they’re exposed to anything brighter than a forty-watt amber bulb.
My hands reek of developer and stop bath.
My fingers seem to be permanently pruned with chemicals and water.
My left eye is blurred from being closed for so long.
My right eye is bloodshot from being open for so long.
Nothing I see anymore is true. It is all now being viewed as a filtered reality through my ever-probing viewfinder.

I’ve got a hundred rolls of film still undeveloped.
I’ve got boxes with thousands of negatives.
But this is me and this is my life.
Capturing that one moment when words can’t even come close to describing it is what I live for.


~Nick Mackris