Esse Quam Videri – Duvonne Everett

Using latin always feels fancy. Lawyers and judges still use latin terms in legal proceedings. Although this photo was taken in Paris, it seems fitting to use a latin phrase because it feels “fancy”. I was leaving the Eiffel Tower on a cold rainy night in Paris. I was in the first week of two weeks in Europe and was still in awe. As I walked, I saw this gentleman standing outside checking his phone. The way the light created a silhouette and the silhouette of the person with the umbrella just felt cool to me. The third silhouette of the person in front of the car was unintentional. The shot seemed perfect when I took it. The three people, the lighting, and the rain all made for a perfect scene. When I got back to the states, I could not wait to do a bit of post processing on the photo. No matter how much I did or didn’t do to the photo, it always felt wrong. I still liked it, but I didn’t think it was ready to be posted. I still wonder if I like the photo or if I like the potential I saw in the scene. Oh, just so you don’t have to look it up, Esse Quam Videri means “to be rather than to seem”. I look at my photos and look for life lessons. Because I live in North Carolina, and Esse Quam Videri is the state motto, I think of the meaning of those words probably more than a normal person does. Many times in life we fall in love with an idea while ignoring the reality. We love what it seems to be. We ignore what is actually is…or what it be. Just like life, that gap between what something seems to be and what something IS, tends to be a source of pain. It’s the age old problem we encounter when evaluating a person’s words and actions. My state motto implies that actions are more important. What it BE is more important that what it seems to be. We also say actions speak louder than words. This also says that BE is greater than what it seems to be. But the photo is here, flaws and all. I didn’t delete it. It’s unedited. It’s real. And many times real, flaws and all, is perfect enough.

Duvonne Everett