places nobody goes (FRIDAY NIGHT THOUGHTSTREAM)
The photo compulsion never went away*. Now, I think I'm onto something. I've been taking pictures of all sorts of machines (never people, really) since I was 5. When I got to college and met more people I liked, I took lots of pictures of them. Better late than never. And when I got my first 4 or 5 or 6 digital cameras, I used them to take pictures of machines OR places that reminded me of "home" OR really ugly people. There was no synthesis.
Last summer, I tried to put together a photo mini-anthology at the behest of Dan Barry. It would have come out on our now-aborted (resuscitatable) name_tk "imprint." I picked about a dozen photos, and we argued for a while about why I could or could not call the selected images "home." Then, nothing happened.
It must be a year later. A few cameras have died since then. I drove another 30,000 miles (almost died! and I hate driving!) and took maybe another 2,000 pictures. Where is it all going? Nowhere that anyone goes.
I like the Saint Johns and Fitchburgs and even the Edmontons and the totally dehumanized Queenses. I like to figure out how the minutiae make places work, and then show it. I like the "borders" set up by "municipality" and so I like to take pictures of public works trucks and city names on garbage cans. Then there are the people themselves.
Can you build shit cities through photography? I don't know; I haven't really tried. I haven't spent anywhere long enough to figure it out. And the places I like to photograph all suck, which is why I like to photograph them in the first place.
Naturally, I have to ask myself why I like these places. I keep asking myself. I get nothing but more weird photos.
So I'll keep taking them. I'll fulfill my commitment to "Global Urban Filth," posting the 200 photos I set aside in January. After that, there will be something else. Something that looks like this sounds.
*The music compulsion lives on in my head; the writing compulsion is rather negatively affected by "being on email" all day. I would rather read, IF I HAD THE TIME. To think that I quit pursuing a journalism career because I thought writing for a living would distract me from writing what I had to say!
Last summer, I tried to put together a photo mini-anthology at the behest of Dan Barry. It would have come out on our now-aborted (resuscitatable) name_tk "imprint." I picked about a dozen photos, and we argued for a while about why I could or could not call the selected images "home." Then, nothing happened.
It must be a year later. A few cameras have died since then. I drove another 30,000 miles (almost died! and I hate driving!) and took maybe another 2,000 pictures. Where is it all going? Nowhere that anyone goes.
I like the Saint Johns and Fitchburgs and even the Edmontons and the totally dehumanized Queenses. I like to figure out how the minutiae make places work, and then show it. I like the "borders" set up by "municipality" and so I like to take pictures of public works trucks and city names on garbage cans. Then there are the people themselves.
Can you build shit cities through photography? I don't know; I haven't really tried. I haven't spent anywhere long enough to figure it out. And the places I like to photograph all suck, which is why I like to photograph them in the first place.
Naturally, I have to ask myself why I like these places. I keep asking myself. I get nothing but more weird photos.
So I'll keep taking them. I'll fulfill my commitment to "Global Urban Filth," posting the 200 photos I set aside in January. After that, there will be something else. Something that looks like this sounds.
*The music compulsion lives on in my head; the writing compulsion is rather negatively affected by "being on email" all day. I would rather read, IF I HAD THE TIME. To think that I quit pursuing a journalism career because I thought writing for a living would distract me from writing what I had to say!
posted by Rob at 10:24 PM
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