Tag: place

by jad

Photography is Slow Montage

“Our art is for someone – even if it starts as for just ourselves.” Wise words from @thecryptidofyourheart. There’s something to be said about the symbiotic relationship between urbanism and photography; the two seem inseparable to me, so much so that “street photography” feels like a tautology – it should just be photography, with “studio photography” being the bastard child. That’s why photography and public transport are such a good fit. But I don’t know if I even think photographically, if I’m honest. I know more about Robert Bresson than Henri Cartier-Bresson, and though I’m not much of a cinéaste … Continue reading “Photography is Slow Montage” →

by jad

Thereness & Hereness

Yesterday, I used the word “thereness” to express how I look at the world photographically, but that’s a retrospective notion – in the moment of decision, the feeling is best captured by “hereness” – here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, so help me God. I’ve noticed this before, whenever I’ve walked through familiar places with a camera in hand; somehow, the world makes itself manifest in a different light that way. But a photo walk with others doing the same adds yet another dimension: the rhythm becomes corporate, a pooling of a liturgy of attention that’s more than idiosyncratic. … Continue reading “Thereness & Hereness” →

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

Megapixel Memories

This last batch of recovered files from 2011 is probably my only and very modest foray into #urbex, apparently taken on an old Nokia phone. The space would feature in a @suzieselman music video, so all credit to finding the location and having the guts to “trespass” goes to her. I love how weird and ghostly the image rendering is in all of these. The metadata says that these were taken on an N97 mini, and yet, for the life of me, I can’t remember ever owning one of those, especially when it was supposed to have a 5 megapixel … Continue reading “Megapixel Memories” →

by jad

GEO+NAFSIYA: GREENING THE GREY

Another set of photos from Beirut that I found as old attachments is this series I’d apparently taken for the long-defunct outlet “Hibr.me.” It depicts GREEN THE GREY, a “public intervention” in June 2011 meant to celebrate green spaces in a city in desperate need of them, or what @beirutgreenproject‘s co-founder Dima Boulad would later call a “peaceful protest” to coincide with World Environment Day. Patches of grass were laid out in car-centric Sassine Square and we spent the afternoon hanging out. It was as simple as that. It pains me to reflect on just how utterly prosaic the politic instantiated … Continue reading “GEO+NAFSIYA: GREENING THE GREY” →

by jad

Photo-Elicitation

Taking photos with someone else is an interesting way of looking at things differently. You’ll probably notice the same things, but you may not; you’ll pause to listen in one spot while the other is talking and vice versa; you’ll use these stops to compose or capture, or you may just peer through the viewfinder, too engrossed in the conversation. You’ll probably start off talking about what you’re seeing, but it’s more than likely that you’ll end up somewhere else entirely. Looking back at these, I’m struck by how most are imprinted with a memory of something said or remembered, … Continue reading “Photo-Elicitation” →

by jad

#BusLineHeroes: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 18

Part 1: Becoming the Change This week, I’m stripping it all back to the bare tacks: I’m grateful for the stories I’m able to tell. @BusMapProject was a bit of tactical urbanism, a modest gambit to capture a global moment when participatory data and collective mapping were becoming en vogue, in the service of a sociotechnical artifact that was very much not—and in doing so, it was a lot more than that. It was an attempt at re-writing a story that Lebanese people told themselves about themselves. In place of chaos, we wrote of everyday ordering; instead of lawlessness, we … Continue reading “#BusLineHeroes: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 18” →

by jad

Domesticity: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 14

Part 1: The Grandview I’ve not been able to shelter much in place during this crisis, but every time I get the chance to stay home, I enjoy the domesticity. To have this place to take shelter in as my work hours begin to stretch longer into the night—to still afford to make rent when many will not, come April Fool’s—is a privilege I don’t take for granted. It’s not just that I’m grateful to be housed; I actually love this apartment on the edge of Amazonia. I love our high ceilings and these walls of some mystery blend of … Continue reading “Domesticity: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 14” →

by jad

Creative Clusters: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 8

Part 1: Artpop, Inc. I’ve been listening to a lot of Lady Gaga since she popped up on my playlist on Valentine’s Day. It’s been a while since I’ve listened to anything as infectiously positive and carefree; I’m especially aware of this because, two days prior, I attended an art-based workshop where they asked us to share a song that we turned to when we wanted to lift our spirits; I couldn’t think of any. There was a time when it was strangely meaningful to think that Lady Gaga and I are the same age. Looking back, I now feel … Continue reading “Creative Clusters: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 8” →

by jad

NYC: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 7

Part 1: The Grid “Nature is man’s inorganic body, that is to say nature in so far as it is not the human body. Man lives from nature, i.e. nature is his body, and he must maintain a continuing dialogue with it if he is not to die. To say that man’s physical and mental life is linked to nature simply means that nature is linked to itself, for man is part of nature.” (Marx) When I first arrived in NYC, I didn’t even know what a “block” was. I’d heard it used in dialogue in movies and such, but … Continue reading “NYC: 20 Weeks of Gratitude, Week 7” →