Lisa Larsen – Syracuse University, 1949

I love photography, and think I’m pretty good at it. Hundreds of photos I’ve taken, from the late 1960s when I bought my first real camera - a Nikon Nikkormat - to the advent (for me) of digital photography in the late 1980s languish on contact sheets and on slides, waiting for me to get my ass in gear and digitize them.

I also love how the always-at-hand cameras in our mobile phones make in-the-moment photos available whenever we want them. But back when this photo was taken, it took a lot more to frame, focus and capture the joy of the moment, while keeping the subject of the photo unaware that she was being photographed.