✦ Photography

I point a camera at things that make me stop

I am not a photographer. I am a person who sometimes sees something and needs to keep it. These are the things I kept.

All photos taken on a Fujifilm X100V and occasionally a phone when the Fujifilm was in another room. Film simulation: Classic Neg, mostly. I am not taking requests.

Liminal

Waiting rooms, empty platforms, hallways between things. Places that exist only in transit.

Empty hospital waiting room, chairs in a row, fluorescent light — Oncology, 4th floor. The chairs are always the same color.

Train platform at dusk, no passengers, long shadows — Last train. Or first. Hard to tell at this hour.

Hotel corridor stretching into distance, identical doors — Conference hotel, somewhere in Ohio. I have been to this hallway in six states.

Stairwell with peeling paint, single bare bulb — My building, 2am. The light has been like this for three years.

Still life with medication

The objects of chronic illness. Arranged, because arrangement is a form of control.

Pill organizer on windowsill, morning light, seven compartments — Monday through Sunday. The week in miniature.

Stack of medical paperwork, coffee ring stain on top sheet — Explanation of benefits. The irony of that phrase.

IV bag hanging, window behind it, light through the liquid — Infusion center, third chair from the left. The light was doing something.

Prescription bottles arranged by height on bathroom shelf — Sorted by size because I needed to sort something.

3am

What the world looks like when you can't sleep. Which is often.

City street at night, wet pavement reflecting streetlights — After the rain. The city is better when it's been washed.

Kitchen table with open book, single lamp, dark window — The reading that happens when sleep doesn't.

Ceiling with shadows from streetlight through blinds — What I look at when I'm counting. The stripes change with the wind.

Coffee mug steam rising, dark background, early morning — 4:17am. The Ember mug earns its keep.