Photo taken in Tompkins Square Park a couple weeks ago on a different chilly spring walk. Hello friends— first, un petit bit of good news: Filthy Animals is a finalist for The Dylan Thomas Prize, which is very exciting and good news. Short stories! Full announcement over here:
"At some point in life beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It's enough." "Beauty is not simply something to behold, it's something you can do." Two quotes by Toni Morrison that remind me of your experience watching the birds fly over the Ralph Lauren café. It was a beautiful Saturday, wasn't it? There will be more beautiful Saturdays too.
Love love love this. I’m a nurse and used to do a ton of phone work with patients and it can be so hard and lonely. Glad your friend has you to talk to about their experiences, and I love hearing about what photography has come to mean for you.
Your writing has always seemed photographic to me, in that you don't editorialize or over-interpret, but hone in on external details so patiently that they reveal deep interior states. Congrats on your well-deserved finalist nod, I hope you win!
Re: experiencing things w/o immediately making use of them -- Perhaps 20 years ago, long before the hyper-curated self of social media, I saw this frightful TV ad for a video camera that promised "Now you can enjoy your vacation memories while you're still on vacation!" Something has gone very wrong here...
This was a beautiful piece. Thoughtful and engaging. As another writer-approaching-photography, I spent a while thinking about the moment when you described watching the birds and feeling grateful that you hadn't tried to photograph them. I waver between wanting to capture everything that I find beautiful, and preferring to leave the richer, uncaptured impression on my mind. I feel like observing is better for my writing. It's that Richard Avedon idea, that a photograph is the death of the moment. You take something living and pin it on the butterfly board. On the other hand, photography has its way of revealing and unpeeling the surface from things. I think you're wise to love photography for itself, and writing for itself, and let each art give you what it can.
Loved this, especially the link to EB. For me your styles definitely chime.
Made me think of something I just read in LOA edition from her in a letter to Anne Stevenson in 1964. “My outlook is pessimistic. I think we are still barbarians, barbarians who commit a hundred indecent cruelties every day of our lives, as just possibly future ages may be able to see. But I think we should be gay in spite of it, sometimes even giddy, — to make life endurable and to keep ourselves ‘new, tender, quick.’”
Note: The quote is from “Love Unknown” by George Herbert.
"I’m able to write when I write and when I can’t, I don’t take it so personally" is the dream.
"as an editor, I am very keen on structure. It’s the part you have the most control over. The part where your interventions yield the highest payoff for the effort you put in." this feels really true
Reading this post? This is how happiness feels.
"At some point in life beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint, or even remember it. It's enough." "Beauty is not simply something to behold, it's something you can do." Two quotes by Toni Morrison that remind me of your experience watching the birds fly over the Ralph Lauren café. It was a beautiful Saturday, wasn't it? There will be more beautiful Saturdays too.
Love love love this. I’m a nurse and used to do a ton of phone work with patients and it can be so hard and lonely. Glad your friend has you to talk to about their experiences, and I love hearing about what photography has come to mean for you.
You are gorgeous!
This piece is gorgeous.
Thank you for all the beauty you put into the world. ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Brandon, this was beautiful. Such a loving portrait of your friend. And reading about your photography journey is a joy.
Your writing has always seemed photographic to me, in that you don't editorialize or over-interpret, but hone in on external details so patiently that they reveal deep interior states. Congrats on your well-deserved finalist nod, I hope you win!
Re: experiencing things w/o immediately making use of them -- Perhaps 20 years ago, long before the hyper-curated self of social media, I saw this frightful TV ad for a video camera that promised "Now you can enjoy your vacation memories while you're still on vacation!" Something has gone very wrong here...
Wow. Just wow... such a full meal, this post. I cackled out loud when I read, "Getting out of my apartment was rather complicated..." Isn't it though?
Okay, I will finally develop the roll of film that’s been sitting on my dining table...
Thanks for this. Lifted me up.
An astonishing piece of work. A Bishop essay, a plastic poem, wonderful
Exquisite.
This was a beautiful piece. Thoughtful and engaging. As another writer-approaching-photography, I spent a while thinking about the moment when you described watching the birds and feeling grateful that you hadn't tried to photograph them. I waver between wanting to capture everything that I find beautiful, and preferring to leave the richer, uncaptured impression on my mind. I feel like observing is better for my writing. It's that Richard Avedon idea, that a photograph is the death of the moment. You take something living and pin it on the butterfly board. On the other hand, photography has its way of revealing and unpeeling the surface from things. I think you're wise to love photography for itself, and writing for itself, and let each art give you what it can.
Loved this, especially the link to EB. For me your styles definitely chime.
Made me think of something I just read in LOA edition from her in a letter to Anne Stevenson in 1964. “My outlook is pessimistic. I think we are still barbarians, barbarians who commit a hundred indecent cruelties every day of our lives, as just possibly future ages may be able to see. But I think we should be gay in spite of it, sometimes even giddy, — to make life endurable and to keep ourselves ‘new, tender, quick.’”
Note: The quote is from “Love Unknown” by George Herbert.
https://ccel.org/h/herbert/temple/LoveUnknown.html
"I’m able to write when I write and when I can’t, I don’t take it so personally" is the dream.
"as an editor, I am very keen on structure. It’s the part you have the most control over. The part where your interventions yield the highest payoff for the effort you put in." this feels really true
this is all lovely