The Photograph Happens When We Stop

PHOTOSNACK #684

Here is my Sunday thought.

When I look at this photograph now, I realize it’s not really about the postbox at all.

It’s about the moment I decided to stop.

That’s something photography gives us—these tiny interruptions in the flow of life. Most of the time we move quickly: walking, hurrying, already thinking about the next thing. And then, suddenly, something makes us pause. We raise the camera, and in that instant, the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

The photograph itself is just a trace, a souvenir of that pause. The real photograph—the one that matters—already happened in the moment we refused to walk past.

I sometimes wonder if that’s why I keep photographing. Not only to make images, but to train myself to notice. To be interrupted by the world, to let it remind me that even small details—a wall, a box, a shadow—are worth attention.

And maybe that’s one of photography’s greatest gifts: it teaches us to be interrupted.

Do you also often find yourself stopped in your tracks by something small, unexpected, easily overlooked—something you had to notice?

Until next time,
Tomasz