Still not ready to post about the year, so…
I hope everyone had a Christmas Day of comfort, some joy, and a bit of doing what you wanted to do. I hope this will find you all well.
Tag: Black & White Photography
A Couple of Scenes From Dallas, On the Occasion of Our Recent Visit
I may talk about the tragedy later. I had a couple of conversations, saw a few things, felt a great deal, but I need to process it. In the meantime, since we went there for something entirely joyful, let me stick with that for now.
Daniel Kost is Donna’s nephew, the youngest of two brothers. He’s an engineer, an artist, a good guy and a fine human. He’s been living in Dallas practically since he got his degree, so we don’t get to see him much. So when it transpired that he was getting married, naturally we had to attend.
The ceremony, though modified because of a sudden rainstorm, was beautiful.
Here they are, Dan and Ana:
Oh, and yes, Dan is tall. Six eleven and a skosh. Which makes Ana…well, taller than me.
The wedding was held in the Texas Discovery Gardens, which boasts a marvelous butterfly house. Of course I had to take a walk through it, and…
No, it’s not the only picture I shot, but give me time. (I have no idea what kind of winged beauty that is, but…)
Earlier in the day, we went to the Dallas Museum of Art, which is in (wait for it!) the Art District. They had an Irving Penn retrospective on. I’d never seen any of Penn’s work “in the flesh” before and it did not disappoint. While going through it, we came on a class. The instructor was giving the kids a primer in photography and she was very good. “When was the last time you took a picture? What did you take it with?” (Unsurprisingly, most of them had taken one with their phones.) She then showed them a range of different cameras.
The day after we arrived in Dallas, which was Thursday evening, we took a trip to Garland and the Stetson outlet store. So I am newly be-hatted as well.
Anyway, to end with where I began, another photograph of the newly-wed couple. Clearly they seem merely tolerant of each other and who knows how long this will last.
Wandering On A Thursday Morning
Feeling a bit abstracted and commentative this morning. Politics is depressing and energizing at the same time, did you ever notice that? The devouring of the corpus publius…
So photographs.
Wandering the streets, trying to fit what was with what is, seeing the skeleton of what you used to know beneath the layered detritus of the now. I see the same things but they no longer register the same way. Is this, perhaps, nostalgia, intense homesickness, nosta—homecoming—algia—pain?
The past is there, but I am not. I can only note what it once was, testify where it had been, validate the now because the scaffolding of then holds it up.
Or maybe I’m just tired.
We are a pattern-anticipating sensate creature. Where the patterns mean nothing we can oblige the emptiness by bringing our own meanings and applying them. It’s as pleasant a pasttime as any other, until we begin believing our own significations to the detriment of the previous occupants. Even knowing the traps, we can’t help it. We want to, and sometimes we do, but more often we just think we do. Know, that is. The inability to accept the process leads to tight spaces with no room to maneuver. Squeezes our expectations all out of true.
The patterns persist even when the desires change. If we appreciated them for what they are and resisted the urge to impose our own hungers on them, we might find what we need and feel better about it in the process.
But what do I know? I’m just a science fiction writer who takes pictures.
Hope you have a fine day.
This Doesn’t Happen Every Day
Ethan Hawke has a new book out. Yes, that Ethan Hawke. And this Saturday past he stopped at Left Bank Books to sign copies of it. On top of it being Small Business Saturday, it was a rather intense day, and to have this cap it off was…very cool.
One more, just because I think it’s a cool image.
Final Version
New adventures in Photoshop. This is going in the art show. Rest of the day is for writing. Enjoy.
It’s March 9th. Time For Another Photograph
This one was taken on the campus of MSU, East Lansing, Michigan, in the summer of 1988. When needing a break from the workshopping and writing that was Clarion, I’d go for walks with my cameras and find things.
Okay, make that two photographs.
Three…
Okay, I’m done for now. It really was a lovely campus in places. Speaking of writing, I’m going to do more now. Enjoy.