A camera is a permission slip

A camera has taken me into rooms I had no business being in — not because of the gear, but because of what it lets you do. It's a socially acceptable excuse to stare. To ask a stranger about their life. To stand in one place for an hour watching how the light moves.

I don't think I'm actually that interested in cameras. I'm interested in the permission they grant: to be curious out loud, and to call it work.