Creating A Moment

reating a moment is a subtle art. I say this because I’m not very good at it. Almost every time it’s happened, it’s been an accident. And I think it needs to be, because I can tell when someone is trying too hard to make something happen. Colored smoke? A lone, obviously staged umbrella in an otherwise mediocre shot? Instagram is rife with them.

More often than not, a real moment that you create is often just a simple shift of your perspective. A nudge. That’s why they are so hard to get right. For the longest time, I stood with the crowd in front of the Venus de Milo at the Louvre in Paris, hoping to capture a shot. But the crowd was too thick and everything I shot was nothing more than a vacation photo.

In this case, I decided to use the crowd to my advantage, because almost no one was standing behind the statue. The crowd suddenly became part of the photograph, a throng of worshippers jockeying for position in front of their god. It was, all of the sudden, the shot I wanted. A moment worth having.

I’m not a professional photographer. I shoot with instinct more than actual skill, but I love this shot. I think it says something about the crowd, about the statue, and ultimately, about me.