Author: jad

by jad

St John the Divine

On the morning of my birthday, we went to visit the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine bright and early, so we were two of a handful of people there. I was amused when the very cool and very bored person at the counter asked what the nature of my visit was—this was early in our trip, and I wasn’t yet used to these buildings being seen as tourist traps, plus his question was giving “border control”—and even more amused when he tripped over my reply: prayer. After a beat, he made sure I knew that photography isn’t allowed if … Continue reading “St John the Divine” →

by jad

New York Aura

I’d planned to get an aura photo taken upon my solar return and was pleased to see that @magicjewelrynyc did that sort of thing in a convenient location in Chinatown. Drop-ins welcome too! Alas, the only woo-woo that was to ensue was our circling the block a dozen times in the scorching heat before realizing that the location had disappeared off the face of the earth. Grand rising! We had a good laugh about that and greatly enjoyed the insanity that is Canal Street and its Canal Street bling. We also seemed to stumble upon some police raid that was confiscating merchandise, … Continue reading “New York Aura” →

by jad

Far Away (Ground Zero)

The one place we prioritized once we found a coin locker for our suitcase and sat down for lunch at the station was @nyan_nyanji, the Cat Temple on the outskirts of town. As millennials from the internet, it just felt like that had to be the one religious site of the many religious sites in Kyoto we couldn’t miss, if we could only see one. It would be more than an hour by bus and back, and it did not disappoint. I’ll post a fever dream of a Reel about it shortly. #japanonfilm #streetphotography #nikonlitetouch #35mmphotography #analogphoto #kyotogram #kyotographie x … Continue reading “Far Away (Ground Zero)” →

by jad

Travel Spam and Transport Geographies

Back to our regularly scheduled programming with more travel spam that the same 10-15 people care about. I’d wanted to lean into the “nonlinear” in my bio by mixing up photos from the two visits to NYC that bookended our trip, but found it harder to find the plot than I expected. So, to get me back into the flow, here’s the quintessential New York experience: the Metro now OMNY. Twenty years ago, I was such a greenhorn to big cities shaped like grids that I had no concept of stations having many entrances or trains having different directions of … Continue reading “Travel Spam and Transport Geographies” →

by jad

Organic Intelligence at Slip Belltown

“OPERATION” by @benirito at ORGANIC INTELLIGENCE at @slip_belltown I made a friend on Monday. We’d first met at an art show, so it seemed fitting that we’d meet up again at another. But first, we pretended to be elsewhere for a while, somewhere far from this city we’ve both adopted. We sat at a sidewalk cafe, performing aperitivo under a Seattle sun turned a Mediterranean orange by the smoke of Spokane’s hellfires, and we talked about what it meant to think and feel and relate in this part of the world. Our backgrounds were vastly different, and yet, the resonances … Continue reading “Organic Intelligence at Slip Belltown” →

by jad

Rothko, Sontag, and a Book Called Fotografare

“The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience I had when I painted them.” That’s what Mark Rothko said in 1965 about the colorfield work he’s most famous for, an insistence on a “meaning” behind the “abstraction” that his son, Christopher, has reiterated in interviews about the major exhibit he co-curated in Florence this year: “He wanted those who looked at his paintings to experience the same religious experience that he had while creating them.” I’m no art historian and had no sense of his intentions when I encountered a Rothko in real life for … Continue reading “Rothko, Sontag, and a Book Called Fotografare” →

by jad

Overtourism, and Cory Doctorow’s Reverse Centaurs

I’ve been seeing some chatter on here about “overtourism,” a phenomenon that’s viscerally obvious in a city like Florence. And while I’m not above grumbling about the crowds myself, every time the discourse veers into a quasi-actionable register (that proverbial “what is to be done”), I flinch. What is there to be done, really? Because the grumbles never come from people who have not stepped foot on whatever sacred ground is in question; it’s always people who want to be there just as badly as everyone else. And while my heart always goes out to the people who actually live … Continue reading “Overtourism, and Cory Doctorow’s Reverse Centaurs” →

by jad

The Questione Della Lingua (Last Frames from the Uffizi)

Last frames from the Uffizi. x It’s interesting to think about the outsized role that Florence has played in shaping Italy’s language and national identity. It keeps coming up in the books I’m reading. The “questione della lingua,” which took on new urgency after unification, unfolded along two lines of tension. One looked backward, seeking authority in the literary language of Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, treating the Florentine of the Trecento as the standard to be preserved through careful study of the classics. The other looked forward, asking whether a modern nation should instead build its common language from the … Continue reading “The Questione Della Lingua (Last Frames from the Uffizi)” →

by jad

#JimothySummer: Peace Dropping Slow

It’s official! The summer of 2026 is #JimothySummer! I have never felt prouder of my city. Thank you @councilmember.amr 🥁 and thank you Jimothy! I even teared up a little during this love fest. There were soooo many beautiful artworks that I’ll have to post a follow-up reel later to do them justice. For now, enjoy Seattle at its best 🦝 x “For peace comes dropping slow…” I was planning a follow-up video with more of the artists after yesterday’s lovely proclamation of #JimothySummer by @councilmember.amr, and before the tragic news from the Seattle Center that we all heard about … Continue reading “#JimothySummer: Peace Dropping Slow” →

by jad

The Bored Invigilators of Florence

The bored invigilators of Florence. The first was in the Uffizi. The rest were in Palazzo Strozzi. x Il posto era stracolmo. A phrase that could describe any place in Florence. x People and paintings in the Uffizi. It’s a bit of a cheat, but one of my favorite reasons for visiting a museum or art gallery is staging the works on display in the act of their apprehension by the other visitors. I must say, however: the Uffizi did not make this easy. For the first half of our visit, there was a dizzying chaotic energy in almost every … Continue reading “The Bored Invigilators of Florence” →