Tag: church

by jad

Lebanon: Day 4

I’ve been to Saida’s Old City a half-dozen times over the years, but I honestly don’t think I’ve seen the same streets twice. This is Saida’s Qala’a or Sea Castle. The Crusaders built it in 1228 on a small island connected by an 80-meter footpath. The site used to house a temple to Melqart, the Phoenician version of Heracles and what’s known as a “dying-and-rising deity.” A god of resurrection. This is Khan Sacy, a private residence being converted into a hotel with a museum underground revealing the many layers of history found during excavations. This first room is the … Continue reading “Lebanon: Day 4” →

by jad

Costa Rica: Day 5

Today I hope to dip into the Carribean for the first time, but here are the last of the captures from the Quepos side of the Pacific. The great thing about this national park is that the forest paths all lead to the beach, so almost everyone on our tour opted to stay there at the end of our walk. We had places to be, so we left with our guide who couldn’t help but point our every mangrove and every fern he saw on our way out. Swipe to see a slo-mo sloth sequence. Pray for my laptop. It’s … Continue reading “Costa Rica: Day 5” →

by jad

Christine’s Project: Kelsey Creek

We tied up a few strings and put a bow on a couple of things today, and I guess the giddiness of relief put me in the mood for oddball scenography when we found ourselves by the new eastside rapid rail station. I took these shots while seriously needing a nap. Can you tell? Today’s biggest bow was the one we put on @christine.bingham.art‘s photo-documentation project; with Maria Goretti now in the can, we have all 12 saints documented — and that’s a wrap (for me–Christine still has to finish the book). I just love that the very last photo … Continue reading “Christine’s Project: Kelsey Creek” →

by jad

Carnation, WA

Reading about the history of the “Carnation” brand of evaporated milk lends itself to a tortured metaphor for the Seattle liberal worldview: “contented cows give better milk.” Carnation was apparently originally called “Tolt,” a much less florid and alluring name, which is a pretty common pattern out here: Kent was once “Titusville,” Auburn was once “Slaughter” — and, of course, all of it was once known by very different names and tongues. In fact, “Tolt” was the clunky Anglicization of the Lushootseed word “tultxʷ,” which is what the Snoqualmie people called the river here, and they opposed the first time … Continue reading “Carnation, WA” →

by jad

Christine’s Project: Mizyara

Today, I had the privilege of visiting a most unique shrine with the most touching story, a living tribute to not just one saint, but two—Maria Goretti and her unlikely acolyte, Raya Chidiac. It was an honor to be greeted by Raya’s mother, Marie, who has made it her ministry to share St. Goretti’s message of universal forgiveness through the heartbreak of losing her daughter Raya in a cruel parallel across centuries. And when she says “through” Raya, she means it quite literally: it was Raya who came to a stranger in a dream, asking for a shrine to be … Continue reading “Christine’s Project: Mizyara” →

by jad

Christine’s Project: Beirut

“Beirut, I want to escape you, only to crawl back a few days later and embrace you.” These are a couple of digicam test shots from this morning’s shoot with my sister @staceybkl who so kindly took part in @christine.bingham.art‘s ongoing photo-documentation project of her “saints in the mirror.” Don’t tell anyone that I didn’t bring my Fuji’s charger and was rationing shots on a single bar of battery all day. Oops! Thankfully, we still managed to make it happen thanks to Stacey and Antoun!

by jad

Saints in the Mirror

This one killed it last night, and those aren’t even my words; it’s what so many who were there at her “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit have been telling me all day. I know how hard she’s been and still is working on this project, and I couldn’t be prouder. Two of the twelve pieces from @christine.bingham.art‘s “Saints in the Mirror” exhibit at Epiphany yesterday, depicting Sor Juana and Saint Rose of Lima. You should ask Christine about her collaborative process with our cat. I was so happy to see so many of you there to support Christine! It was … Continue reading “Saints in the Mirror” →

by jad

Montréal: Cohen & Kateri

On our first night in Montreal, we tried to watch a documentary called “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen,” but we were so tired that we started drifting off a few minutes into it. That was enough time, however, to catch a Leonard Cohen refrain from an old interview from his youth that would play in my head as we huddled under the world’s smallest umbrella in the world’s most terrifying sneak-attack thunderstorm. After asking Cohen what concerns him, and after Cohen laughed and demurred, insisting that he hasn’t the faintest concern, the interviewer pressed the poet to share what … Continue reading “Montréal: Cohen & Kateri” →

by jad

National Camera Day: Смена-Symbol in Everett

So apparently today is #NationalCameraDay, which makes it a great day to share the (unedited) results of my very first roll using the Soviet-era (1972 to be precise) LOMO Smena Symbol. I’ll have lots to say about the camera itself in the next post, but first, a few words about the content itself; I hate feeling like I’ve wasted film, so I try to take meaningful shots whenever I can. But I also had no idea how this fully manual, viewfinder-style camera would perform, or if I’d botch the whole thing up trying to meter for the first time, so I … Continue reading “National Camera Day: Смена-Symbol in Everett” →

by jad

Birthday Polaroids ’23

I very rarely acknowledge my birthday beyond mandatory staff cake and some social media posts (though apparently not every year, as I noticed scrolling through this app last night), but it has happened maybe 2 or 3 times in my life. The very first birthday party I threw for myself was in 1999, at the Fuddruckers in Kuwait, where I made sure I’d planned plenty of games and activities so no one would get bored, and we didn’t have to dwell on how it was a combination going-away party as well. The next time I let myself be celebrated was … Continue reading “Birthday Polaroids ’23” →