Most people photograph nouns. Or pretty.

I photograph things others hurry by on their way to photograph— things they step over or drive by. I take my camera when there's nothing to photograph, nothing going on, no one interesting, lousy light.

I photograph verbs, light, questions.

What camera? I'm the camera — not that costly glob of technology I hold up to my face to edit the world. My eyes and brain and the excitement of seeing are what take photos, noticing things, imagining things and sometimes getting gifts that happen like sprinklings of fairy dust.

I'm not in style. I'm not working off an intellectual construct or a big concept. That neck-up stuff seems like so much sawdust to me. No heart in it. No risk. No viscera.

I hope my photos speak to you. I hope they sing songs to you. Songs you've never heard before.

— Susan Bein