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Photography has been my passion

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ever since I was old enough to pick up a camera,

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but today I want to share with you

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the 15 most treasured photos of mine,

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and I didn't take any of them.

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There were no art directors, no stylists,

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no chance for reshoots, not even any regard for lighting.

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In fact, most of them were taken by random tourists.

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My story begins

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when I was in New York City for a speaking engagement,

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and my wife took this picture of me holding my daughter

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on her first birthday. We're on the corner of 57th and 5th.

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We happened to be back in New York exactly a year later,

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so we decided to take the same picture.

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Well you can see where this is going.

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Approaching my daughter's third birthday,

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my wife said, "Hey, why don't you take Sabina back to New York

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and make it a father-daughter trip, and continue the ritual?"

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This is when we started asking passing tourists to take the picture.

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You know, it's remarkable how universal

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the gesture is of handing your camera to a total stranger.

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No one's ever refused, and luckily no one's ever run off with our camera.

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Back then, we had no idea how much this trip would change our lives.

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It's really become sacred to us.

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This one was taken just weeks after 9/11,

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and I found myself trying to explain what had happened that day

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in ways a five-year-old could understand.

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So these photos are far more than proxies

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for a single moment, or even a specific trip.

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They're also ways for us to freeze time

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for one week in October

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and reflect on our times

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and how we change from year to year,

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and not just physically, but in every way.

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Because while we take the same photo,

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our perspectives change,

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and she reaches new milestones,

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and I get to see life through her eyes,

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and how she interacts with and sees everything.

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This very focused time we get to spend together

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is something we cherish and anticipate the entire year.

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Recently, on one trip, we were walking,

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and she stops dead in her tracks,

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and she points to a red awning of the doll store

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that she loved when she was little

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on our earlier trips.

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And she describes to me the feeling she felt

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as a five-year-old standing in that exact spot.

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She said she remembers her heart bursting out of her chest

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when she saw that place for the very first time

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nine years earlier.

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And now what she's looking at in New York

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are colleges,

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because she's determined to go to school in New York.

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And it hit me: One of the most important things

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we all make are memories.

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So I want to share the idea of taking an active role

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in consciously creating memories.

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I don't know about you, but aside from these 15 shots,

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I'm not in many of the family photos.

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I'm always the one taking the picture.

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So I want to encourage everyone today

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to get in the shot,

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and don't hesitate to go up to someone and ask,

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"Will you take our picture?"

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Thank you. (Applause)