The Observers: Missed Moments

The photographs that make up The Observers collection are not the ones with perfectly framed screens and obvious stories to tell. In my opinion they are the ones that illustrate the stories beyond a single captured moment. The overexposed, or too dark, the blurry ones, or the photos with an unclear subject, or a sudden interruption—like a truck passing in front of the camera.

I’m most interested in the photos that show the dark screens of the cameras or smartphones in the instant after a photo was taken. The ones that, by accident, capture the short moments required to process the image and the anticipation of seeing the just-caught photograph. While the anticipation and uncertainty of a photograph is a waiting game in traditional photography, it’s often unimportant or unnoticeable in digital photography, and gets shorter as the technology develops.

To me, such moments echo the fact that there need to be moments in life to pause and process what happens, wait and expect the results, and even plan for some possible outcomes. It’s not just the end result that matters, but the exercise to make it happen, which is equally important.

And so it is with design: pausing, printing—or rendering in the final medium—squinting, comparing, thinking, planning, and refining. In a word it’s about process. In science, as well, researching, experimenting, and a step-by-step detailed process, all are equally important. Any mistake at any level could affect the final results and the anticipation to see the outcomes makes it more exciting.

In my mind, the following photos are not the unsuccessful ones, but they are samples of the hundered photos that we simply overlook and delete from our phones. Each of them shows a moment, but not what we intended to record. Without them The Observers wouldn’t be complete.