50 People - 42 Poem by Raj Dronamraju

42

She takes out her camera at every single event
The taking of pictures becomes its own event within an event
Fully ½ of the time - posing, being posed, being ordered around
Individual, in groups, with an arm around the shoulder of a stranger

No event no matter how trivial
Fails to be preserved by photographic record
No cares about how the camera might steal their soul
Later, she'll look at the pictures when she is alone
She was too busy planning the photography session to talk to anyone at the event itself

I can never see enough photographs of myself
She was at the event, she was part of a meeting point of life
Even if she didn't talk to anyone and spent the whole time playing with the settings on her digital camera
Just being there was enough
The photographs make her participation real