Photos I didn't take this month...

I heard about the unphotographable blog from Michelle a while back. Many of you may already be familiar with it. After all, the photoless photo blog about pictures not taken and missed opportunities has been featured in USA Today, the L.A. Times, etc.--so this is hardly breaking news. But I have been thinking about the photos (specifically those that match the Monthly Special) that I never took this month, and I thought I'd share some of them with you in "unphotographable" style:

• This is a picture I did not take of an elderly woman contemplating an image from her childhood.
• This is a picture I did not take of a child holding a picture of her father who is in Iraq.
• This is a picture I did not take of Eva looking at unrealistic beauty ideals in a fashion magazine (Rest assured, it would have been staged for the social message. Thankfully, we don't have any of those magazines in our home.)
• This is a (horribly manipulative) picture of a child's small hands trying to tape together the torn wedding photo of his parents. (Not pretty, but I was imagining it as a good stock photo for an article on the effects of divorce on children.)
  
• This is a picture that I DID take but decided not to post for fear the content would alienate/offend readers (what do you think? good call? bad call?). It shows a homeless man sleeping underneath a huge image (billboard-sized ad in the Paris Metro for a sale at the department store Galeries Lafayette) of a mostly-naked woman stretched out and dangling her bikini bottom playfully from her foot.

Looking at the list I realize that those photos don't fit the generally upbeat nature of my blog, but I think they demonstrate the variety of possibilities that a "photo within a photo" can offer. Judging from the number of participants so far, I think this month's theme may have been too....too what? postmodern? bizarre? intimidating? You tell me. But at the same time, even though the participation has been lower the readership has been great so I'm still glad to have done this topic.

Next month, we have a new challenge complete with multiple Photoshop tutorials, a couple of creativity-inspiring posts about artists/photographers, and hopefully, another interview. Stay tuned.