Dear Person,

I'm addressing this letter to you because it's been four days since my last post and I don't really feel like taking the time to construct a reason to send someone a letter that reads more like an essay. So I'm going to sit here and tell you some ideas about photography that I just found words for.

There is a reason I'm drawn so strongly to photography. It's really the only way you can distill the world's pure beauty with minimal tampering. Human interference waters it down some, but our diluting presence is more than made up for the physical and chemical processes utilized to capture a still image. Disregarding Photoshop, a photograph is essentially a copy of a small slice of our surroundings.

Writing, that other great art we take for granted, is full of human constructions: irony, sarcasm, lies, and so much more. Writing exists to convince you. Photography exists to show you. Sure a photograph is subject to it's maker. A human chooses what to include, how to frame it, where to focus, when to trip the shutter, etc., etc., but this is the only medium grounded in the pure, physical act of existence. Good photographers can manipulate that reality to elicit certain reactions from their intended viewers, but the world pictured will always remain the same.

Beauty in reality. This is why photography exists.

Thank you for your indulgence,