Tag: photography

by jad

#Route101: Another New Year

As we recover from the motion blur of our epic #Route101 road trip, much of the past year is coming into focus for me in the rearview mirror. I spent much of 2022 and a good chunk of 2021 thinking and writing about meaning—discerning it, making it, communicating it. I tried every personality test and even got into tarot. I turned inward, coiling up tighter and tighter until I got sick of that spiritual exhibitionism and the leering that comes with it. I wanted out and I found an unexpected exit in photography, an ecstatic eye to thread new lines through. But … Continue reading “#Route101: Another New Year” →

by jad

#Route101: Eureka, CA to Portland, OR

More photos from my phone of our #Route101 road trip, before I develop my rolls of film. These sum up #EurekaCA to #PortlandOR: 1. Mural in Eureka, CA. I’d like to think that this is the California bear at his government job being a flag. 2. In-N-Out Burger in Eureka where I asked a server “how was the storm for ya” and he gave me a bumper sticker. 3. Mural in Napa, CA. I had the best shrimp and grits here. 4. Mural of SF at a gas station/burger stand in Hopland, CA. This was a bathroom break. 5. Our motel in Coos Bay, OR, … Continue reading “#Route101: Eureka, CA to Portland, OR” →

by jad

#Route101: Olympia, WA to Shelter Cove, WA

I shot four rolls of film on our #Route101 road trip and probably won’t get a chance to drop them off to be developed before Friday, which is fine, as that’s the 12th day of Christmas. But I’m expecting a post-holiday crunch so the scans might not even be ready for weeks… So in the meantime, here are more shots off my phone, summing up the journey from #OlympiaWA to #ShelterCoveCA: 1. Shipping container at Northpoint, Port of Olympia. We ended up here by mistake. 2. Storefront in Lebanon, OR. This town is a lot cuter than I’d expected. 3. Coke machine at our motel … Continue reading “#Route101: Olympia, WA to Shelter Cove, WA” →

by jad

#Route101: PDX-SF-Eureka

Dearest, I am writing to you from #EurekaCA after Christine heroically drove us through here, from Seattle to San Francisco, and back again, on #Route101. It has been a doozy. I’ll have more to say about it all in subsequent missives to you, good friend, but in the meantime, here are some unedited, straight out of the camera digital shots I took along the way on our first time down the coast, using that #HolgaLens I’m loving so much. Oo yeah, Californi-yay. x x One of the more memorable stops along the way was Shelter Cove. We knew it had a brewery that claimed to … Continue reading “#Route101: PDX-SF-Eureka” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Maya

These double exposures are from my very first #filmswap: I shot the roll in Bellingham, then Maya, whose poetry I feature here, shot over it a second time in San Diego. We had a vague idea of what each of us was planning, but every composition you see here and in the next two posts was completely accidental/providential. I love everything about this. I love how our images were taken in two borderlands on the two far ends of this western coast; two liminal spaces mirrored and refracted in our contrasting choices of locations—public and impersonal landmarks in mine, private and intimate spaces … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Maya” →

by jad

Juxtaposed

“I basically just write the same line a million times in slightly different ways to see what clicks.” Someone said that to me the other day and I think it’s a mark of genius. I’m trying to be a lot less precious about the photos I take and post. Still thinking about how I might approach this new hobby more like my approach to writing, but I haven’t figured out what that means yet. Thoughts? x Let’s getjuxtaposed,juxtaposed-Just supposeI juxtaposewith you. (Super Furry Animals – Juxtaposed With U) x “Now why should the cinema follow the forms of theater and … Continue reading “Juxtaposed” →

by jad

ADVENTWORD 2022—PURIFY

Today’s #AdventWord is not one I’d have picked myself; there’s almost no choice but to read a word like PURIFY in, well, puritanical terms, and, if you’re anything like me, maybe even a James Hetfield twang: TRUTH AND DAREPEELING BACK THE SKINACID WASH GHOST WHITEULTRA CLEANWANNA BE SKELETON Metallica’s “Purify” perfectly captures the unrelenting reductionism of how we tend to hear & deploy the concept of “purity”: a sweet turpentine to burn off all excess & filth. PURIFY OUR CONSCIENCE! cries this Sunday’s collect: “Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may … Continue reading “ADVENTWORD 2022—PURIFY” →

by jad

AdventWord 2022—TRAVELER

Today’s #AdventWord is TRAVELER, and for the longest time, I’ve been fixated on a phrase that came to me repurposed from an album title, a phrase that became a kind of philosophy of life in molecular form: “I am traveling with another.” I ran that through a readability analyzer and it apparently corresponds to a 10th/12th grade level, which makes sense, because in many ways it captures a high school senior’s style of overthinking the world. Like an essay about serendipity that compares the concept to looking over the school yard fence and noticing a storybook style house you describe like a … Continue reading “AdventWord 2022—TRAVELER” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Corinne

Corinne isn’t really on Instagram anymore, but this is how we connected: pouring our little hearts out into this app until we became friends a couple years ago around this time, after a chat about some #AdventWord posts I’d made. Since then, we’ve worked together on a couple of things, including the coolest battle vest you’ve ever seen and that gorgeous set of portraits that David took for @inconjunct. Though I’ve known her primarily as a visual artist, I’m touched and honored to share Corinne’s moving poetry in the next three posts: x WILDERNESS by @cascadiacore Once a wolf swallowed me, andcarried me in … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Corinne” →

by jad

#AdventWord 2022: Christine

// Every year for many years, I took part in an Instagram ritual called #AdventWord, first on an old account, then here—every year except the last, when I just couldn’t; the very idea of ritual exhausted me. // A few weeks ago, I checked in with myself to see if anything had changed. Things had. I wanted to mark the season again, but only if I could do it with others. So that’s what I’ll be doing this year; not every day – just when it feels right. I hope it feels right for you too. // Today’s word is WALK. … Continue reading “#AdventWord 2022: Christine” →