Photographs Not Taken- Will Steacy

The Photographs Not Taken is a collection of essays by photographers about the times they didn’t use their camera. I have asked the photographers to abandon the conventional tools needed to make a photograph, and, instead, make one using words to describe the memories and experiences that didn’t go through the camera lens. Here, the process of making a photograph has been reversed. Instead of looking out into the world through a camera lens, these essays allow us to look directly into the photographer’s mind and eye and focus on where the photographs come from in their barest and most primitive form. These mental negatives depict the unedited world and the moments of life that do not exist in a single frame.      -Will Steacy

Do this long enough and everyone accrues his or her share of photographs missed, denied, purposely or indecisively not taken; it's the nature of the game. Photographs Not Taken is a book long overdue; love the concept, the layout- not to mention many of the anecdotes therein, many of which are poignant, insightful and remarkably well written by a bevy of name photographers. There's a reason we do this- and often, the reason when and why we don't is just as revealing...