Moments of Imperfection

Sungai Siput, Perak. Malaysia, 15 August 2019

Today I tell you about an unlucky photo I took during my visit to Kampung Siput, Perak, Malaysia, when I saw these Orang Asli children playing with bottles full of water. They were jumping over to toss water to other children. 

I took many photographs of them playing. Some are nice and well done. But I missed the most beautiful moment in a particular photo: a child jumping over the wet bottle slipped flying into the air, then fell back to the ground. I photographed him while he was flying, suspended in the air, but the little girl in front of him ruined everything, blocking our view.

I showed this picture to my dear friend and editor of my books Yuliani, as often happens we talked about what we saw, and she said: "If only..."

Yeah, "if only .." the little girl hadn't been in the foreground, I would have captured a perfect moment. This makes me angry and bite fingers, but...

Life is not like a fruit shop where you can pick up only the tastiest apples and discard those that are already too ripe and buggy. Life is also these moments of imperfection, and we must accept them.

Even the "if only" are precious. They offer us a lesson. They teach us that perfection does not exist in our lives. We can only tend to it, and express our feeling of dissatisfaction. But, wanting everything to be perfect is an exercise in futility.

Therefore, this photo is important, precisely because of its human nature. Just like an archer who always aims to shoot the center, once totally misses the target and the arrow is lost by far. If not for that missed shot, the arrow that is always in the center would have less value.

This is why I love photography, it always opens up diverse ways of thinking.