I don't take pictures of smilin' kids
Or the happy things that other people did
My camera's made of old brass and dust
It develops shadows, and captures the rust
That gathers on memories, on love, and on loss
I don't paint the picture
I just show you the gloss on the pain underneath
I'm a Photographer of the Unseen
A developer of the in between
I trap the ghosts in a silver nitrate stream
And I hang 'em all up in my darkroom of dreams
With a click and a sigh, as the image appears
I'm a collector of whispers, a merchant of fears
Yeah, I'm the Photographer
Some men come here with a fire in their past
They need a bad memory they know cannot last
So I focus the lens 'til the smoke starts to curl
And I burn out the truth from a treacherous world
The negative fades in a chemical bath
Leavin' a man with a smoother new path
And a hole in his soul
I'm a Photographer of the Unseen
A developer of the in between
I trap the ghosts in a silver nitrate stream
And I hang 'em all up in my darkroom of dreams
With a click and a sigh, as the image appears
I'm a collector of whispers, a merchant of fears
Yeah, I'm the Photographer
This viewfinder looks both ways, you see
It's startin' to frighten even me
Cause the last face I captured, lost in a dream
She looked right at me through the celluloid gleam
And in the reflection, in her terrified eye
Was a man with a camera, and that man was I
Trapped in the frame
I'm a Photographer of the Unseen
A photo developer of the in between
I trap the ghosts in a silver nitrate stream
And I hang 'em all up in my darkroom of dreams
With a click and a sigh, as the image appears
I'm a collector of whispers, a merchant of fears
Yeah, I'm the Photographer
The safelight is fadin' now
My own negative's waitin' now
In the developer tray
Just one more shot to take