Halftime

Bright little mishaps

Intention

I made more accidents! These photos were doubly exposed last summer by simple ignorance. This roll was processed by the knowledgeable folks over at Express Photo. If ever you're in Brookside, be sure to pop in and say hi to Steve.

Chicago, July '16 / KCMO, August '16

Mojo Pin

"All the untidy activity continues,
awful but cheerful."

This is a way more articulate sentiment than I could produce right now (or ever), but it speaks to a certain sense of ennui/dread/wonder/distraction which currently occupies my head. These are the final lines of "The Bight" by Elizabeth Bishop, and are also the epitaph on her headstone. I visited it once, but I can't seem to find the photo I took of her grave. All I have is an image of this tree across the road.

November 2015

Anyhow, when I was on my wild Greyhound trip back from visiting my friend Rose in Chicago (hi, Rose!), I listened to this Jeff Buckley album a lot. There was a bunch of night lightning in the western sky over Illinois, and I caught a calm twenty minutes of sleep to this music. Then a fight almost broke out at the bus station and our bus broke down in rural Missouri, but the adventure was worthwhile.

- "Mojo Pin" by Jeff Buckley, from Grace (1994)

Down by the Water

Rock Harbor Beach in Orleans, MA; November 2016. The Community of Jesus is based here, and its giant black angel statue is eerie, to say the least. Several former members of the community have come forward and called the group "destructive;" the website created by these former members is here.

Weird photo effects due to a roll of Lomography 400 film and a focus-free Minolta Freedom 50N camera. Or maybe they're due to the black angel. I'm not sure.

Mt. Auburn Cemetery, Pt. II

These photos are from the summer, but better late than never...right?

Cemetery, Orleans

Thanksgiving break 2015, Orleans, MA.

I'm 98% sure this film was several years beyond expired. Thanks, Lomography.

On and on and On

Posting from a cell phone is a royal pain.

I did not expect to feel this strongly, but I miss Wellesley very much. It's hard to believe there's only one semester left.

This winter break marks the beginning of a hesitant job search. It's uncomfortable and exhilarating to be so unsure of the future, but I'm also eager for some degree of stability and routine to return to my life.

That's all this little brain can muster right now.

Gelatinous Ghosts

Taken with a Minolta Maxxum 7000 on a poorly-loaded roll of Kodak UltraMax 400 film. If these weren't so underexposed and sad, I'd be more excited about the weird framing. I suppose that's part of the reason why analog is fun, though--mistakes and surprises run abound, and the gratification of seeing those mistakes is not instantaneous.

And because it is the last day of classes, and because I should be working harder, it's time for Patti Smith singalongs and eventual studying.

Unknown Treasures

August 2015; a well-loved desk.

Vistas Cambiantes

There are over thirty library books in my room right now. I haven't felt so right in weeks.

Here is the westward view from my window, as seen by my little dinky focus-free camera, maybe in August and September. (I have no idea.)

Mt. Auburn Cemetery

Here are some photos from last month, when I spent a day wandering around Mt. Auburn Cemetery. It was my first time using this camera, and only my second time shooting (expired) black-and-white, so most of my shots didn't turn out, but I had fun and that's what matters, right? For the record, though, shooting in black-and-white is a million times harder than color.

A bit about Mt. Auburn itself: The first "garden cemetery" in the U.S., Mt. Auburn was dedicated in 1831 as a radical departure from the more popular urban cemeteries. The idea was to incorporate the graves into the landscape and create a park-like atmosphere. The space is still unbelievably peaceful, and holds the remains of nearly 100,000 individuals, including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Bernard Malamud, and Isabella Stewart Gardner. There's also a huge monument called Washington Tower, which, from the top, has incredible views of Cambridge and Boston. I chose to go up, however, at the same time as a huge group of tiny yet vocal schoolchildren, which was both unsettling--I was afraid someone was going to fall--and annoying. Despite the rowdy kids, I appreciated the cemetery quite a bit, and definitely encourage anyone and everyone to visit, should they receive the opportunity.

A well-loved grave

The best I could do; Cambridge + Boston

España (Buenos Recuerdos)

Here are some shots, fired from a Minolta Freedom K Focus-Free camera. They were all taken in late January, using Lomography 400 film.

Salamanca

On the bus

Madrid

Toledo and the Tagus River

Lost in Córdoba

Somewhere near San Lorenzo, early March.

Break Photos, Pt. II

This was a roll of some cheap 400 Lomography film, shot over the last few weeks on a Minolta Freedom GT camera, which took clearer photos than I was expecting.

Juniper in the backyard

Clay-Platte Montessori

Beloved meadow-tree

Leavenworth shanty