Tag: cinema

by jad

The Lord Will Provide

I finally made it out to GT Recording, the only place I could find in Seattle that can digitize 16mm film reels. They’re only open by appointment and at odd hours, and when I got there, I expected to find some grumpy Gen Xer behind the counter. I was pleasantly surprised to meet the sweetest old lady named Connie who gently laughed at my offering extra leader in case my reels were a little worn out. She said they deal with even older and moldier stuff than mine. I took these photos about five minutes apart. The light can change … Continue reading “The Lord Will Provide” →

by jad

RICHLAND

Last night, I watched the breathtakingly beautiful RICHLAND, a documentary by @komsomol.films on the history and people of Richland, WA, a once secretive town that’s tangled up forever in the afterlife of the atom bomb. I knew I’d be informed but I did not expect to be moved – it’s those “nuclear feelings” that UW professor Shannon Cram brought up in the Q&A that did it. Watch it when you can. I’m currently working with @uraniumfilm to bring this film back in April, but that’s fine, watch it twice – it’s worth it. I’ll have more to say about RICHLAND … Continue reading “RICHLAND” →

by jad

Nuclear Culture & Photography

“The first bomb, set to go off at a height of some five hundred metres, produced a nuclear flash which lasted one fifteenth-millionth of a second, and whose brightness penetrated every building down to the cellars. It left its imprint on stone walls, changing their apparent colour through the fusion of certain minerals, although protected surfaces remained curiously un-altered. The same was the case with clothing and bodies, where kimono patterns were tattooed on the victims’ flesh. If photography, according to its inventor Nicéphore Niepce, was simply a method of engraving with light, where bodies inscribed their traces by virtue … Continue reading “Nuclear Culture & Photography” →

by jad

“Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture

I’ve been interested in the history of the atom bomb and nuclear technology ever since I read about Hanford in a book on the Columbia River called “The Organic Machine” almost two years ago. This book inspired me to visit the region last summer for my first serious foray into film photography, and soon after, I would fortuitously meet a photographer at the PCNW fair who had published a whole book on that area I had just been to. I was hooked and I kept telling myself I’d visit again. I immersed myself in the history of that godawful decision … Continue reading ““Phooey America”: Nuclear Culture” →

by jad

The Meaning of Six Six Six

And what spot does X mark? X is you and I, the coming together of diagonals—an intersection and ideal symbol for the very search for meaning. X can mean the unknown variable or the buried loot at the center of a treasure map; X is both a placeholder and a destination—a deliberate holding pattern, or, perhaps, a refusal to land on familiar terms. In our cultural consciousness, we have Generation X, The X-Files, and Malcom X. Let your eyes shift back & forth between these correspondences. Contemplate their polarities—if strange patterns emerge, what you are now experiencing is what Umberto … Continue reading “The Meaning of Six Six Six” →