Ed Sheeran wrote Photograph mid-tour with a Lego kit nearby. Longevity wasn’t the goal.
But somewhere between a Lego X-Wing, a hotel room piano loop, and a quietly devastating chorus, he built something that outlasted the moment it was written for.
Released on 11 May 2015 as the fifth single from x, Photograph captures a long-distance love story that’s equal parts yearning and preservation.
Co-written with Snow Patrol’s Johnny McDaid, the song hinges on an honest confession: “Loving can hurt sometimes.”
Not in a poetic sense. Not as metaphor. Just a soft admission, left unpolished.
The production, helmed by Jeff Bhasker and Emile Haynie, is stripped enough to let the lyrics do the lifting.
Acoustic guitar, piano, and programmed drums create a slow build without ever pushing toward climax.
The beat never crashes into a dramatic swell, it simply walks with the weight of the words.
At the centre of it all is a photograph. Not a concept, not a metaphor. An actual one. Kept in the pocket of ripped jeans, maybe around the neck in a locket, maybe tucked inside a wallet.
It’s a placeholder for presence. The lyrics circle this object, but it’s not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. It’s survival through memory.
“We keep this love in a photograph / We made these memories for ourselves”
It’s not just a metaphor, it’s a coping mechanism. A way to hold someone close when they’re too far to touch.
The song is widely believed to be about Sheeran’s then-girlfriend, Scottish singer-songwriter Nina Nesbitt.
Both were touring separately at the time, trying to stay connected through irregular calls, mismatched time zones, and long stretches of silence. You can hear that ache in the pauses between verses.
But the strength of the track lies in how little you need to know about the backstory to feel it.
Sheeran called it his “collateral” song; the one he thought could sell the album even if nothing else worked. But it didn’t come easy.
He cycled through nearly 70 different versions, from sparse piano to more fleshed-out demos with Rick Rubin and Jake Gosling.
None of them felt right until Jeff Bhasker stepped in and slowly shaped the version that stuck.
Among Sheeran’s catalogue, Photograph is often the one people quietly come back to.
It doesn’t get the playlist love of Shape of You or the wedding legacy of Thinking Out Loud, but fans especially on Reddit have called it everything from “a breakup wrapped in warmth” to “the most quietly painful love song he’s ever written.”
Some say it got them through their own long-distance limbos. And here’s the twist: Photograph wasn’t just a sleeper hit. It was supposed to lead the whole album.
But when Thinking Out Loud unexpectedly climbed the charts and became a first-dance anthem, Photograph aged more quietly – less a radio hit, more a long-haul companion.
The official music video made it even more personal. Directed by Emil Nava, it uses home video footage of Sheeran from infancy to sold-out stages.
There’s no acting, no performance, just the unfiltered passage of time.
It’s not about fame or success. It’s about the fact that even in a life lived on camera, memory still slips through.
“I won’t ever let you go” hits differently when you know the relationship didn’t last.
It’s hard not to hear a bit of denial in that line, like he’s clinging to something already slipping away.
One fan described it as “holding a ghost” a line that sticks because it’s true.
Even the lyric about being tucked inside the pocket of ripped jeans walks a tightrope between tender and naive.
But maybe that’s what makes it work. It sounds like someone trying too hard to stay close.
And yet, for a track that closes out the x single cycle, Photograph didn’t just hang around, it soared.
No. 10 in the US, No. 15 in the UK, quadruple platinum, and now one of Spotify’s top 20 most-streamed songs of all time.
It also landed on the Me Before You soundtrack and shows up on sleep and breakup playlists, oddly fitting.
The song was once at the centre of a copyright lawsuit over its resemblance to Matt Cardle’s Amazing, but the case was quietly settled and faded from headlines.
What didn’t fade was the song itself. Photograph stuck around, not because of controversy, but because it tapped into something that rarely makes a scene: the ache of loving someone you can’t reach.
Whether through distance, disconnection, or time, that feeling doesn’t need explaining.
And maybe that’s why the song still resonates. Not for what the photograph captured, but for everything it couldn’t.
Do they live on as we remember them? Or does time eventually fade even what’s supposed to stay still?
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Ed Sheeran Photography Lyrics
Verse 1
Lovin’ can hurt
Lovin’ can hurt sometimes
But it’s the only thing that I know
And when it gets hard
You know it can get hard sometimes
It is the only thing that makes us feel alive
Pre-Chorus
We keep this love in a photograph
We made these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closin’
Hearts are never broken
And time’s forever frozen still
Chorus
So you can keep me
Inside the pocket of your ripped jeans
Holdin’ me closer ’til our eyes meet
You won’t ever be alone
Wait for me to come home
Verse 2
Lovin’ can heal
Lovin’ can mend your soul
And it’s the only thing that I know, know
I swear it will get easier
Remember that with every piece of ya
Mm, and it’s the only thing we take with us when we die
Pre-Chorus
Mm, we keep this love in this photograph
We made these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closin’
Hearts were never broken
And time’s forever frozen still
Chorus
So you can keep me
Inside the pocket of your ripped jeans
Holdin’ me closer ’til our eyes meet
You won’t ever be alone
And if you hurt me
Well, that’s okay, baby, only words bleed
Inside these pages, you just hold me
And I won’t ever let you go
Wait for me to come home
Bridge
Wait for me to come home
Wait for me to come home
Wait for me to come home
Chorus
Oh, you can fit me
Inside that necklace you got when you were sixteen
Next to your heartbeat, where I should be
Keep it deep within your soul
And if you hurt me
Well, that’s okay, baby, only words bleed
Inside these pages, you just hold me
And I won’t ever let you go
Outro
When I’m away, I will remember how you kissed me
Under the lamppost back on Sixth Street
Hearin’ you whisper through the phone
“Wait for me to come home”
