They Left Me Out Of The Picture So I Created My Own Chapter 06
By the second week of classes, the lecture hall for the introductory course was packed wall-to-wall with first-year students.
Professor Dunn, a legend in the department, had everyone submit one of their favorite photos anonymously. Hundreds of images flashed across the screen before he suddenly hit pause.
My photo, The Absent Presence, filled the massive wall.
I sat up a little straighter.
For the next ten minutes, he deconstructed the image—the off-center placement of the empty chair, the cold light on the silverware, and the casual, almost cruel, ease of the people in the frame.
“This piece captures with surgical precision the subtle estrangement within contemporary family dynamics,” he said. “The photographer never shows us the absent person, and yet that absence becomes the most powerful presence in the image.”
I sat in the back row, hidden in the darkness of the hall. I felt no elation, no grievance—just a quiet, distant tremor deep inside me.
So my thoughts could be read this clearly, this seriously.
When the lecture ended, Leo rushed over.
“Oh my god, that was your piece? That was incredible!”
He lowered his voice. “You know, when Professor Dunn singles someone out like that at the start of the year, they almost always end up in his advanced seminar. People in this department would kill for a spot in that class.”
I carried my camera out of the lecture hall.
Here, no one needed me to manage their emotions, and no one laid claim to my time. All I had to do was focus on my work, and the work would speak for me.
Leo jogged to catch up. “And there’s a rumor that students Dunn praises in the first big lecture always get their senior projects noticed by curators from MoMA.”