Wednesday, January 23, 2019 AT 3:30PM

Freezing Time & Chasing Memories

With a Canon EOS Rebel G 35mm gripped in hand, she follows him with her lens as he chases another player weaving back and forth. The year is 1996, the score is 0-0, it’s a Fox Lane High School soccer game, and they’re getting spanked. I think they lost though I can’t say for sure. But I can feel the weight of disappointment in a portrait my mom took of Shin out on the field that day.

It’s 1993, one of the last pictures all of us kids took together before she moved away. Kinu was headed to America before the rest of us caught up from Japan. We’re stacked as a pyramid, I’m on the top, and I feel so cool. Mayumi’s hair is looped over my eye, I wanted to move it but I knew I would slip off. I still remember the hair tickling my face…. at least I think I do.

Our mom ALWAYS had a camera strapped to her. Whether it was a big soccer game or the family hanging out, she made sure these moments weren’t lost. I love her for that.

There is always that one person in the family who's capturing these moments. Pictures like these live on the walls of our parent’s homes and settle into the pits of our stomachs as warm memories. We are surrounded by stories and paint a narrative from the images we see. I love photography. I love it’s ability to evoke feeling. I love the powerful stories it captures. I love that when I look at a picture of my grandma I can still smell her perfume and hear her yelling “yoo hoo!” Or how her endearing head-tilt with eyes saying “I love you” is frozen in frame.

Photography is so much more than taking a simple shot. It has the incredible power to spark memories and throw us back into that time. It’s history. It’s perceptive. It’s feeling. It’s spontaneous or calculated. It’s anything you want it to be. It's creative. It’s beautiful.

Akari

Cameras pictured above are  mostly hand-me-downs from my grandma. Grandmas are super cool. Give a grandma a hug today.