Photo-graph

For years now I have preferred referring to photos as photos (short for photographs) rather than pictures. A picture can be any graphic representation, but a photo is something different. However it didn’t dawn on me what fundamentally that difference was until this week. And now I’m wondering why it wasn’t so obvious before.

If you break the word down you get photo- and -graph (or you could be real weird and break it down to ph-oto-gra-ph, or p-hot-og-rap-h, or some other weird division, and then it doesn’t mean anything). Photo comes from Greek and means ” light.” Graph also comes from Greek and means “write.” A photograph then is writing with light! And I thought writing with anything Crayola was cool.

:lightbulb: Light! Writing, drawing, designing with light! Light, which was the first creation of all creations. Light, which separates us from the darkness, which guides us where we need to be. Light, without which there is no life (with relatively few exceptions that are just weird). A photograph is creating with light.

I think I really like that idea. I like the idea of associating the photos I take with recording the light of the moment, with using light to create a memory. On some level it feels elevated. It makes me happy of the light writings we have of our life.

Some lights in my life: