Reply To: Inspirations in Photography

[spike]

My inspiration is a strange but personal one. Years ago I was sharing a few pictures via AIM (yeah..that long ago) with a friend called Jade. She has a crippling  illness called Wilson’s Disease and her mobility is very limited. Furthermore she comes from a very traditional and restrictive Vietnamese family who don’t encourage her to push her own boundaries, whether those be physical or in the realm of self expression.

I was showing her some shots I took on a camping trip. They were not the best photos because they were taken with a low resolution digital camera with a slow sensor and no flash. I mentioned that I wasn’t real happy with the pics, and she said this.

“I would give anything to have two good legs and a camera.”.  I remember those words exactly. After that she went on to say that if she ever went to the mountains or the ocean or a different city she would take pictures of literally everything in case it was the last time she ever got to be there. She was afraid that the time would come that pictures would be all she had..and she had too few pictures like mine.

Ever since then, when I do a run of touristy snapshots of seemingly random things I encounter along the way, I label the album “TGLAAC” and the date in living memory of Jade Le.