Mara

On Memory, Presence, and the Act of Seeing

While this is a post about Mara’s memories, I admire her and her family in a way that fills my heart. It feels meaningful to gather the seeds of my work at this moment in my life, when so many things are beginning to make sense. I also wanted to leave some personal reflections on photography and on what motivates us to observe, to watch, and to create, according to our inner drive, our motivation, and our sense of purpose.

Why do photographers photograph?

It is a question I asked myself ten or fifteen years ago. What is the essence? The metaphor? The drive behind the action?

I do not have many photographed memories from my childhood. And somehow, consciously or not, I shaped my life around recreating memories. As a photographer, I have spent my adult life giving memories back to others, in their homes, in the spaces they live in, and in the moments that matter most to them.

For me, photography has always been personal, interpersonal, and vital. I was never passionate about photography itself. I was interested in other photographers, I admired them, and I dedicated time to studying their work, but my true passion was always about giving back to people what I may have missed.

Mirroring beauty. Being invested in finding beauty as it already exists, not creating it, but observing it.

The ordinary. Ah, the ordinary.

Everything I longed for or missed in my own life love, presence, a gaze, the quiet beauty of home lives there. As a child, I spent much of my time in the kitchen, my own little laboratory, observing while my mother cooked for everyone, wrote her poems, drew, or smoked.

My photography grew from those moments. It is about playful or quiet scenes, about moments people often take for granted. For me, these are peaceful memories, the ones I return to, the ones I hold within myself. No one ever saw them. They lived only in my mind.

So maybe I photograph to keep those memories alive, for the people I photograph and for myself. When I photograph, I am not a photographer.

I am a human being with a camera.