A Special Day With David Lykes Keenan - The Camera

Ghoul, New York City, 2009 Photo © David Lykes Keenan

Cat in Brooklyn, NYC, 2010 Photo © David Lykes Keenan

Trey + Passerby, Austin, 2010 Photo © David Lykes Keenan

The Ache and I are still here. The other difference is that I’m now a photographer armed with a Camera. I never go anywhere without it. It is my security blanket, my calling card, my passport to life, the lives that I can only observe.

The Camera is also a crutch, something to hide behind. It is what is welcomed, not me. Without the Camera, I do not belong. Forever, I am on the outside looking in, the Camera, however, grants me temporary admission. Behind it, I see life as it could be, then perhaps, with a click of the shutter, I take a little bit of that life with me.

Mannequin, NYC, 2010 Photo © David Lykes Keenan

Monument Shadows, NYC 2011 Photo © David Lykes Keenan

Without the Camera, I would be adrift in his sea of humanity, completely at the mercy of the Ache. I’m in the autumn of my years, I’m still waiting for a very good year. 

The Camera has become a physical manifestation of Hope and something I am never without.

“Every time I go through something scary, traumatic, I survive by taking pictures,” said the American photographer Nan Goldin.

The Camera is Life.

— David Lykes Keenan, 2011