Photography is an art. It might not be an art in terms of brushstrokes or molding clay, but it’s an art in terms of having an eye for what to capture. The decision to take a photo in itself is an act of creativity; you’ve decided to make a moment — a visual composition — everlasting.

I started taking photos when I was about five years old. To call it photography would be a stretch, but a camera has never been far from my hands. 

Bits and pieces of the early 2010s are still tangible in my fuzzy photos and shaky videos; my dad’s silly faces, too-close pictures of my pets and playing with my sibling. 

It was simple — if I loved it, I took a photo. 

Now, it isn’t always so simple. Careful curation dominates a lot of our approach to photography and the way our generation shares photos. Our photos are often tied to our image rather than to our heart. 

Treating photography as capturing essence, however, is game-changing. 

“The camera friend” is a term I’ve seen thrown around a few times online. It describes the person in the friend group who brings the small digital camera to the party or the friend “who’s always recording memories.”

The more I saw these posts and videos, the more I grew to empathize with it. 

I imprint my friends onto film negatives and keep printed photos on my wall. Sometimes I feel self-conscious trailing behind my friends to take photos of trees or sheepishly shooting videos on trips to the beach. 

But I’ve found that it plants my feet in time. Time goes by more slowly. 

I will remember the moment. And it will live on. It’s taking the essence of my life — beauty, joy and curiosity — and making it tangible.

I like to say I inherited my love for a camera from my grandfather. It’s when I see the boxes upon boxes of photo slides and countless photo albums that I remember why I do it. You see his life, through his eyes, amidst the photos. 

Decades. Birth. Celebration. Beauty. Play. He can’t even remember these memories, but they live on.

The viewfinder is not just the mechanical tool of a camera. It genuinely captures human vision and the curiosity that comes with it. 

We are in these moments of our lives once — they are fleeting. A photo is taken with intention, remembering those moments with care.

There’s a quote from James Thurber that was adopted as the fictitious Life Magazine mission statement in “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”: “To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other and to feel. That is the purpose of life.”

It is with creativity and eagerness that we achieve this most profoundly. It’s the essence of the human spirit that wants to make itself known while exploring what’s around us. 

And really, though, we love through what we choose to create, what we choose to capture amidst the race of time. 

We’re in a time that is derealization-inducing. Uncertainty and fear are commonplace. But I urge you to slow down — and slow down creatively. Slow down with love and with intention. Pick up a roll of film and an old camera. Create an Instagram post where perfection isn’t the goal. Have a camera roll full of nature. 

Becoming the camera friend is becoming the documenter of not only your worldview but of the people, emotion and world around you. Photo albums are treasured for so long because they defy one of our greatest challenges: time. We are here now, and in a photo, we always will be. 

When we are doubtful, fearful and despondent, it’s our most crucial time for creativity. To create is to explore, hope and feel. To create is to live.