While Daniel helps Lynnsey dig through an empty lot in Trenton, Mo., for found objects, Lynnsey's four-year-old daughter Harley, left, keeps herself busy with a garden spade. Lynnsey began making art pieces using found objects as part of a rehabilitation program and hopes to start selling them to supplement the couple's income.
While Daniel helps Lynnsey dig through an empty lot in Trenton, Mo., for found objects, Lynnsey's four-year-old daughter Harley, left, keeps herself busy with a garden spade. Lynnsey began making art pieces using found objects as part of a rehabilitation program and hopes to start selling them to supplement the couple's income.
Photograph by Ryan Dorgan

The Gift of Time in Photography

A key lesson for photographers attending the Missouri Photo Workshop, and for all documentary photographers, is that time matters. It’s just not possible to drop into the lives of people and expect that your pictures will honestly reveal the character of your subjects. The pictures may show what people look like, but they won’t necessarily show how people live and relate to each other in the absence of cameras.

But time can make a difference. A photographer can learn a lot just by spending time observing daily rituals, expressions and gestures, and the way people connect to their family, friends, and colleagues. But observing this kind of unguarded behavior—which can produce honest, un-posed pictures of real life unfolding—requires an

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