Snap

This is one of my favorite photographs I've ever taken.

I love this picture so much that I've twice threatened to blow it up and hang it over our couch. It was taken back in August on the Aran Island of Inishmore, on our way up to Dun Aengus. It's that cheeky expression on the boy's face on the right—seemingly in direct challenge to the vitriolics emerging from the mouth of the boy in the center—that still gets me (see larger). It was a moment I could never create again, one that could have just as easily been captured on a disposable camera.

Some of my favorite shots are mistakes, blurs; more than just one moment, several, bleeding together.

Some embody the defects in processing, reminding me of forces outside the photograph: the woman in a cotton flowered dress who spoke only Russian, bent over metal tubs of developing fluid in a room lit by one bare bulb.

And some are simply born from the daily passing of life and my refusal to let it glide so quickly past us.

A great photo to me is one that makes time rest for a moment. Not just capturing the moment, but making time rest. Slow down before it starts back up again.

Sometimes I'd like to stay right there, in the pause.

Carry on, time. I'll catch up with you.

© Zan McQuade. All rights reserved.