Tag: ideology

by jad

Red December

Behold the lambBehold the lambNot one stoneAtop another will stand. There have been a couple more full circle moments lately. New starts to old ends; resets with fresh means. This is one of them; a return to trying again. Taken at the second session of the @seattledsa new member winter cohort. They used my camera to take a group shot too but posting that one isn’t my style. Also: remember the communist I bumped into at Folklife? The one I took a portrait of with the Polaroid Go I’d borrowed? I finally popped into one of the cell meetings she … Continue reading “Red December” →

by jad

A Very Important Man Back Home

My father entered his death throws on the same night we all realized that Trump would be the 47th president of the United States. My mother called an ambulance as per standard procedure and we braced ourselves for the end. He resisted for five more days. My mother has a photo of my dad holding the remote control in his hospital bed. He was still interested in knowing what’s going on. I wonder if he heard the news that we were all reconciling ourselves with; I didn’t ask. There was something puzzlingly calming about holding our breath while the whole … Continue reading “A Very Important Man Back Home” →

by jad

I Am Grief

These double-exposures came about by reloading the roll that got stuck when my Ricoh point and shoot stopped working into a Nikon SLR; the frames clearly didn’t align properly, and the original frames were somehow flipped. No matter. These work well in visualizing my deep dislocation being here while Lebanon’s under attack. It’s a heavy, jumbled up feeling, but — irony of ironies — it’s far from unfamiliar. This slow, rolling rumble of indignation; I’ve felt it before. This gnaw of fear; I’m used to the feeling. These pangs of guilt; they’re always there. It’s all second nature, at this … Continue reading “I Am Grief” →

by jad

From Within

I’ve seen some delightful license plates around here; just now, I saw one that said “CTRL-F5,” which seems to mean “a hard refresh” on most internet browsers, which is the sort of geeky type of thing you’d expect in this zip code. What I didn’t expect, however, are plates that say “TAXWLTH” (tax wealth) or even “GRAMSCI” (a literal communist), both of which were very real and sadly not pictured. It seems that I might not be the only Lake Stinko commie pinko around. So, what would Gramsci have to say about holding proletarian sympathies in a zip code like … Continue reading “From Within” →

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

Montréal: Habitat 67

Habitat 67 is an iconic housing complex situated on a man-made peninsula in the Saint Lawrence River. It was constructed as a prototype of the future of urban living for Montreal’s #Expo67, the theme of which was “Man and His World” (sorry ladies). It was supposed to demonstrate how urban mixity and suburban individuality could be brought together in an affordable way, but that last part crumbled under the pressure of the actual cost of construction. The modular units are now expensive condos. Spots for the walking tour only opened up a week before we visited (on my birthday, no less), … Continue reading “Montréal: Habitat 67” →

by jad

May Day, 2021

It’s fascinating how the Gates Foundation has positioned itself at the intersection of very different vectors of rage over the years—anti-maskers today, copy-leftists last night, anti-vaxxers at one point, counter-Modiites before that. Though not all protests are created equal, this breadth of contention does share one feature: unmasking the feudalistic trials of strength that the neoliberal fairytale tells us it keeps at bay, just outside the city limits. This is what the gatekeepers were supposed to protect us from, but, alas, more of us are beginning to recognize that their rule of experts was founded on myth—this rule is not … Continue reading “May Day, 2021” →

by jad

Against American Exceptionalism: Voting as Harm Reduction

There’s an organization here called Seattle Solidarity. Years ago, I’d read about them on an old iteration of their website, which was a lot more explicit about a fundamental organizing principle they follow or have followed for over a decade: agitate to win and never mobilize if you’re not convinced that you will. I remember reading somewhere in their FAQs how they understood the critical importance to their effectiveness as a solidarity network and pressure group of maintaining a 100% win rate. I can’t find that information now; I don’t know if their ethos has changed, but when I first … Continue reading “Against American Exceptionalism: Voting as Harm Reduction” →