This is a picture I did not take
... Something a little different this week; these are three photographs
that
readers of unphotographable did not
take.
"This is a picture I did not take of the wide eyed faces of a Senegalese
family doing laundry in the
laundromat during the Bay to Breakers race. They stare out the large
window, across the parking lot at the back of a 76 gas station. 10 -15
people are standing or crouching and urinating next to a dumpster. For
some reason they choose to do this in full view against a see-through
chainlink fence, rather than against the cinderblock wall of the gas
station. "Look, look at this one," says the mother, pointing to a man
who stares straight at the laundromat window while peeing on the
bumper of a car. "What is this?" she asks. "You should have seen it
20 minutes ago," says the laundromat owner shaking his head. A small
river of urine trickes across the parking lot towards the storm drain
near his foot." -
Matt
Fisher
"In the middle of my second long layoff from taking pictures, I'm
driving down Highway 10 in south-western Ontario, between the small
rural towns of Shelburne and Flesherton. The sun is setting in front
of me, but between me and the sun there's a rainstorm. And suddenly
the orange glow is overwhelming, a hundred and eighty degrees of pure
fluorescence, behind me the black of a storm, in front the ball of
the sun diffused by a downpour, and yet where I'm driving is bone
dry. It's overwhelming, like driving into a nuclear fireball. I
glance over to where the digicam is normally sitting, and there's
nothing there. And I'm happy. Everything is not a photograph." -
John Brownlow
"i was walking down haight street toward market yesterday after work. it
was lovely out yesterday afternoon. the sky seems bluer and bigger after
the days of rain and grey. one of the trees planted along the sidewalk--a
young one, only about twelve to fifteen feet tall--looked especially full
and vital, its branches covered in green leaves. also housed in the
branches was a medium sized bright orange traffic cone with a thickl
iridescent white stripe round it. it was wedged into the branched and
thick leaves so well, someone must have really wanted to see it there. it
looked cozy and pleasant and it wanted to be photographed, so perfect. i
stopped and lifted my camera. a man, who'd been walking just a few feet
behind me and had passed me at this point looked over and saw the cone as
well. only, his reaction was to reach over and with several strong blows,
bat it out of the tree and on to the ground. i felt sad that i missed my
chance for that photo. and kind of upset that he disregarded my presence
and intention. so i moved away from the scene without taking any photos.
maybe he was just coming to the tree's aid." -
Diane