The “Reflections on Photography” piece really opened my eyes to the instantaneous past that is created by taking a photograph. The author did a superb job of describing this contrast of the current subject when the photo is taken versus the piece that is sparks history the second it is printed. It was exemplified by the experience of death and life. This comparison was very interesting because it’s something we can understand in a physical sense. A fleeting moment in history is something that can’t be easily described by much else than life and death. One day the moment is here and the next it is just a distant memory, and we sometimes grasp for exact details in those moments, just as the author yearned for the exact memory and detail of his mother.

The two phrases that stood out to me regarding the superimposition were “in Photography I can never deny that the thing has been there” and also, “it has been irrefutable present, and yet already deferred”. This is a powerful tool because it documents anything that enters its path. It was interesting that the author chooses to believe that photography was created solely by science even as an artist. This train of thought seems to be brought on by a thought that many of us have which he also mentioned in the reading as “Why is it that I am alive here and now?” The coexistence of past and present is something that we can physically document what we are doing with our lives, and it was intriguing to see how an artist can drives his work by this idea.