ART PROMPT

Me and My Little Instamatic

People are works of art // A Counter Arts Prompt Response

Since Christopher Robin pretty much nailed what art means to me as well, I decided to take this prompt in a slightly different direction.

As a child, I never felt like I was very good at art. The ideas I had in my head never made it to the paper quite the way I’d hoped. I could never seem to work a pencil or a paintbrush to match my vision.

My frustration would grow and I’d end up scrunching the paper, tossing it out, and trying again. And again.

And then I’d give up.

Maybe I was too hard on myself. Maybe I was too much of a perfectionist.

Or maybe I just wasn't meant to draw or paint.

Because one day in my youth, my dad handed me a camera and I couldn’t get enough of it.

Me and my little Instamatic captured all the chills, spills, and thrills of everyday life. My sister hanging from the monkey bars. My brother with his arm in a cast. My parents dancing in the kitchen.

I suppose I was a documentary photographer before I even knew such a thing existed.

At times I’d point my camera at a tree or an inanimate object like a pair of shoes, but I kept coming back to people because I love the interaction. I love catching someone in a moment just being themselves.

Their smiles. Their beauty. Their essence. Their soul.

I think one of the reasons I love photographing people so much is that I’m all about relationships and when I photograph someone, a new connection forms. There’s a vulnerability the subject must be willing to give in order for me to truly capture who someone is. And when someone opens up even just a bit, there’s a moment of subtle intimacy that takes place between us.

In Christopher Robin’s piece, he so perfectly states that art is a manifestation of a feeling trying to get out. And with my little Instamatic, I caught glimpses of a person’s energy and essence trying to get out and make itself known.

Over the years, I’ve moved on to bigger and better cameras. SLRs. Autofocus. Digital. Fancy lenses. More megawhatevers.

But my love of photography all started with my little Instamatic. Together, we began a lifelong journey of recording images of the people in my life. And together, we discovered that people and their souls are beautiful works of art.

kasey sparks, © 2021

Side note: Somewhere, there’s a great photo of me and my little Instamatic. I dug through all my old magnetic page photo albums in the hopes of using it for this post, but I can't seem to find it. Sigh.

Here’s Christopher Robin’s masterful response to this prompt.

And Squeeze the Avocado’s wondering prompt that started it all.

Thank you for reading. To quote Ram Dass, “We’re all just walking each other home.” If you’d like to join me on the journey, click here. If you’d like to access thousands of writers and their soul-stirring stories on Medium, click here.