Before you delete that frame

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There is a reflex in photography that runs so deep most people never notice it. A blurry frame: delete. A grain-heavy shot from a push-processed roll: probably delete. The moment you missed by a fraction of a second, the image where the focus landed just behind the subject’s eyes: delete, delete, delete.

The reflex is corrective. It assumes the photograph is trying to be something precise and clean, and anything short of that is failure. Wabi-sabi — the Japanese aesthetic sensibility built around imperfection, impermanence, and things as they authentically are — suggests this assumption is worth questioning.

The Faded, Worn Jeans

Fri, 11 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There’s an analogy worth sitting with before trying to shoot like your favourite photographer.

You can buy jeans pre-faded — already worn, already broken in, already carrying the creases and bleach marks of years of use. Or you can buy a new pair and wear them every day for five years. The fade ends up looking identical. But only one of them is yours.

Photography has the same problem, and Daido Moriyama is where it shows up most often.

Philosophy on Art Imitates Life

Before you delete that frame

The Faded, Worn Jeans