Tag: photography

by jad

Picking Pumpkins

We went pumpkin picking today. I mean, there were pumpkins strewn around, and we picked the ones we wanted. I guess that counts as pumpkin picking. Either way, it was a first for me. I wish the weather hadn’t turned sweltering for my normcore goth get-up today, because I would have spent more time here. It was very picturesque. There was a major incident on I-90 that closed all lanes for a couple of hours, but we managed to peel off the last exit towards Bellevue at the last minute. The drive back was an hour and a half longer … Continue reading “Picking Pumpkins” →

by jad

10/10: World Mental Health Day

Today is 10/10, which is World Mental Health Day, a good time as any to check in with ourselves at least once every 12 months. This post is about that, in a way. In it, you’ll find outtakes from my trip to Lebanon over Christmas. There’s a word I’m searching for to describe the kind of emptiness one feels after sharing something vulnerable with people with little capacity to help. In my case, the imperative to share has been relentlessly vampiric; one is asked how one is doing almost as a chore, and one’s answer is sucked out so painfully, … Continue reading “10/10: World Mental Health Day” →

by jad

The Horse is Dead

Whatever was on the lake,Will wash up on the shore. Too many people will have too much to say today. I was pretty sure I’d say nothing. What more is there to say, anyway? What more can be said that hasn’t already been said? The horse is dead. The horse stinks to high heaven. No one is changing their mind today. I doubt anyone’s changing their mind again. But I had to go out for a walk to keep from doom scrolling. I brought my camera with me and took these photos. I had my headphones on too; this song … Continue reading “The Horse is Dead” →

by jad

Spooky Season

It’s Holga Week, a time to celebrate crappy optics at the very worst time of year, when days are short, and light is in short supply. Isn’t tradition fun? It’s very much an exercise in film photography, but I’ve enjoyed using my Holga Lens for digital cameras in years past as well, because why not? I wouldn’t say I’m enjoying it this year. In fact, I hate it, and that’s a good thing, because there’s a lot of hatred in my heart right now. Maybe that’s coming through. Maybe these frames are as ugly as I’m feeling. Every day I … Continue reading “Spooky Season” →

by jad

Never Again for Anyone

I took this double-exposure to see if I could make a visual point about an invisible reality in the spaces I now inhabit. I think it came through. This house is one of the many dozens in this neighborhood that used to be governed by racially restricted covenants; whole blocks were redlined here, barring blacks, “asiatics,” and sometimes even “hebrews” from moving in. Some of these covenants were in place as late as the 1960s. And that’s just the topsoil of a much deeper palimpsest of dispossession in this land. Our politics today are just the latest superimposition. I’ve been … Continue reading “Never Again for Anyone” →

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

Where Gaza Goes…

We found ourselves hanging out with Dr. Jill Stein, Prof. Butch Ware, and some two dozen or more Greens and other Stein-Ware supporters in the Secret Garden at Pike Place today. Their visit was very last minute and motivated by the machinist strike at Boeing, so it was a super low-key opportunity to connect with the campaign. I’ve only been a citizen of this Empire for two years, and I use those words carefully; I am a citizen here the way that St. Paul was a citizen of Rome. I exercise my rights and privileges as an act of defiance. … Continue reading “Where Gaza Goes…” →

by jad

Polaroid Scavenger Hunt

I dusted off my Amigo 620 and took part in @glazerscamera’s anniversary @polaroid scavenger hunt after work today; there was a list of 17 prompts, so @christine.bingham.art and I challenged ourselves to do one prompt each, without any repeats. Here are my snaps for “something red,” “repeating,” and “local sports.” Tap of Christine’s profile to see her set of eight. Thanks @sarahlatour_ for organizing! “Street signs,” “architecture,” and “a very Seattle scene”—the last of my snaps from @glazerscamera’s anniversary @polaroid scavenger hunt in SLU (or, more accurately, Cascade). I didn’t quite capture that last one well enough to get my … Continue reading “Polaroid Scavenger Hunt” →

by jad

Fragments of a Fair

We sailed through constellationsand were rutted by the stormI crumpled under cudgel blowsand finally came ashore I spent the next two years or morejust staring at the wallWe went to sea to see the world,what do you think we saw? We went to the state fair within three months of my immigrating here and have been back every year since, except for those two pandemic years when it was closed or too weird. I’ve brought a Holga, a Polaroid, as well as a Fujifilm XT4 here, but this year, I reached for the Canon PowerShot A710IS I found in Lebanon … Continue reading “Fragments of a Fair” →

by jad

Glitch Cam

“It’s the glitches and twists, I thought, that make this universe unique and compelling. Without flaws, there would be no depth, no substance.” (Amanda McRaney Jenkins in a YA novel about a demon possessing a teenage boy.) This is my homage to @la__flaneuse_ brought to you by a glitched-out Olympus digicam I have also found. Is there something about this brand that makes their entropy more inevitable? And what is this particular kind of glitching called, anyway? This is a Stylus 790 SW from 2007. The “SW” refers to “Shockproof + Waterproof,” which is an ironic claim given its current … Continue reading “Glitch Cam” →