The Photo You’re Always Trying to Take

Does this happen to you? There’s a photograph that you’re always trying to take. You have hundreds of the same subject over time, in some file somewhere. You never quite achieve the image in your mind’s eye, and so there they sit. This is fine. There’s time. You keep trying. Oh, hello Samuel Beckett.

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”

So here’s mine, the paint tube, whose photo I’m always trying to capture. Never quite to my satisfaction. It’s there though, on my book shelf. A tube of paint that belongs to Rob, from way back in the day. Have I succeeded? No, of course, I haven’t. The successful photo of this paint tube resides in the future, far off, impossible.