Making Photographs

Making vs. Taking

It was Valentine’s Day morning and I was in the Los Angeles flower district. The sun had yet to rise, but the street was active with flower vendors opening up shop, preparing for the thousands of people who would arrive to purchase bouquets and flower arrangements for that special someone in their lives.

It was a cold morning and the streets were wet from the previous evening’s rain. Fluorescent light spilled out of many of the stores’ large entryways, reflecting off the puddles on the sidewalk. Men with large trolleys rushed past as they moved dozens of bouquets and arrangements up and down the street. A middle-aged couple busily ...