Why Pictures

Authenticity

I’ve loved photography for over fifty years.

Today, while walking with a friend, we passed a little girl riding a scooter beside her mom. She wore an oversized green helmet, slightly crooked, completely adorable.

She wasn’t “traditionally beautiful” in the polished, magazine-cover sense. She was something better. She was real. Fully herself.

I turned to my friend and said, That’s who I want to capture.

Authenticity.

Normally, I would use this moment to draw a parallel to Aikido. I would talk about presence, about removing excess, about allowing something genuine to appear.

But today, I don’t want to explain it.

I only want to say this: authenticity is enough.