everywhere instant

polaroids look and feel like stills from old home movies that play out in my head. I suppose that's why I love them so much.

(selections from polaroid week twenty-seventeen)

(more over at everywhere instant)

polaroid week!

(day one)


(day two)


(day three)


(day four)


(day five)


(day six)

polaroid week was a couple of weeks ago and I just love how everything sort of stops for a sliver of time, for a sliver of people (for instant photography-loving people). admittedly, I hoard all my best polaroids, save them all up for the two different weeks out of the year that polaroid week happens. I sort of love hoarding them. I don't know why.

the entire week's offerings are here and a few of my favorites are here and golly, I was honored to be included in this best-of list over on pryme.

day two, guys. I made it to day two of nablopomo. small victories.

summer

that week just after school lets out, when you're finally off that blasted hamster-wheel schedule and your whole family just sort of melts into the new schedule, the non-schedule, the late late morning schedule, the all afternoon book-reading, all night movie-watching, strawberry-picking, lightning bug-catching, up late late at night schedule.

that's the week we're living in right now. and I love it (for all the obvious reasons) but mostly, I love it because things feel... possible. we're making the big summer list, we're excited and friends, we've had some sleep. we're rested. for the love of mary, we finally feel rested.

make no mistake, there's work still to be done (always), dishes still pile up in the sink and laundry still piles up on the floor of every single room of this freaking house but it doesn't feel so hard. because, I can breathe again. we can all breathe again.

week of the polaroid

above: a few of my contributions to the beautiful pool that is/was spring 'roid week 2016. tenth anniversary of the flickr group! tenth! so, I'm not going to get into a whole thing about time here but, time. is a crazy thing.

should you need to see more, all my polaroids from last week are here, my favorites from the week (from fellow instant photogs) are here and the whole pool of instant goodness is here. long live 'roid week, y'all. long live instant film.

popcorn

the way I see it, spring is a wednesday. a thursday. summer is friday and saturday. fall is a saturday night, an all-day sunday affair. and, winter. I think we all know what winter is. winter is a monday. a tuesday, maybe. on a good day.

what I'm trying to say is, we're in wednesday territory, folks, almost to thursday. I can feel friday coming, I can feel it in my bones. the trees have all exploded, like popcorn on the side of the highway, in grocery store parking lots, in my front yard. tiny petals like white paper confetti, every time the wind blows. I find it in my hair, in the crook of my sleeve, the bottoms of my feet.

and I miss the two trees back in portland that used to explode with pink blooms every year, I really do, but now I have the popcorn tree in my front yard. I can watch it out my front window just like I did with the two trees back in portland. I can point my polaroid camera at things, try to hold onto it as long as I can, as I am wont to do, but the blooms are gone in a second.  it's the confetti it leaves behind on our driveway, though. I walk over it on my way to check the mailbox at the end of  our drive and I am reminded.

friday. friday is almost here.

things for liking

neon seesaws.

croatian sea organs.

ice cream-filled potholes.

ferris wheel hotel rooms.

frosted cakes in subway trains.

grandmothers in rainbow weavings.

disposable cameras in the hands of the homeless.

found photographs turned fictionalized landscapes.

home invasions involving white balloons.

(things for liking, things that instill wonder)

atlanta + amsterdam: cityscape

atlanta, left:

the view of my fair city from the jackson street bridge. and she's not a perfect city, atlanta, but I love her all the same.

amsterdam, right:

just exactly what I imagine the streets of amsterdam to be like. and I hope for some wandering in the near future, perhaps with my friend and co-collaborator, joyce. I hope to experience the differences and similarities between our two fine cities in real life one of these days. fingers crossed, fingers tightly crossed.

and so concludes our little project, atlanta + amsterdam. thank you, joyce, for sharing bits and pieces of your city through the lens of your SX-70 and thanks to all who followed along. here's to projects and collaborations, to differences and similarities, to beloved polaroid SX-70 cameras and quirky, unpredictably lovely impossible project film.

and here's to cities everywhere! but especially to atlanta and amsterdam.

(more from my co-collaborator over in amsterdam, joyce, aka on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

atlanta + amsterdam: home

atlanta, left:

every time I see my bright red door, I smile. and now every time I see that wreath hanging there, I want to sing a little christmas song. this is home.

amsterdam, right:

that little corner, that's what makes joyce smile. the table where they eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, where they sit down for coffee and look out through the bay window at their quiet little amsterdam street. this is home.

(more from my co-collaborator over in amsterdam, joyce, aka on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

atlanta + amsterdam: celebrations

atlanta, left:

thanksgiving, an american tradition. with several little quirky traditions nested within the greater tradition, depending on the part of the country you live in, the family you come from, etc, etc, etc. turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce. family, arguments, gratitude, pumpkin pie. though not necessarily in that order. thanksgiving, I am thankful for you.

amsterdam, right:

saint nicholas day, a dutch tradition. the anticipation of the arrival on december the 5th, decorations and festivities and festivities and decorations. and treats and fruits and tea. saint nicholas day, I like the idea of you. and hope to find myself in amsterdam some late november or early december in hopes I might catch a glimpse of you.

(more from my co-collaborator over in amsterdam, joyce, aka on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

atlanta + amsterdam: art

atlanta, left:

a favorite mural of mine by 3ttman in the summerhill neighborhood, courtesy of living walls, a non-profit organization that seeks to change perspectives about public space in communities via street art. thanks to living walls, there are murals everywhere here in the city of atlanta, everywhere. 'tis a thing of beauty.

amsterdam, right:

a favorite street art piece of joyce's on a historical building at the prinsengracht. painted by the london brothers back in 2009, it's been the subject of much controversy, city council wanted it removed but failed. sorry, city council. apparently, the people of amsterdam want their public art just as much as the people of atlanta want theirs.

(more from my co-collaborator over in amsterdam, joyce, aka on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

mum's the word

the pull is strong these days, I don't exactly know why. black and white, black and white, black and white. reaching for black and white film more and more.

shhhh, don't tell the colors.

atlanta + amsterdam: markets

atlanta, left:

sweet auburn curb market, where you will find tall, tall stacks of collard greens, rainbow jumbles of fruits and vegetables and maybe pig's feet. maybe pig's ears too. what I'm saying is that they're not kidding around with the produce, not kidding around with the butcher counters. sweet auburn is as southern as they come, steeped in history, just a stone's throw from auburn avenue, the very center of the civil rights movement, where dr. martin luther king lived and worked and changed the world forever.

amsterdam, right:

noordermarkt, in the jordaan area of amsterdam, where jumbles of a different kind can be found on an early monday morning. old buttons and lace and the like. antiques, as we call them. deliciously decayed, best when stacked and packed and left fairly unorganized, ready to be pawed and rifled through in early morning light. my kind of market. my favorite kind, really.

(more from my co-collaborator over in amsterdam, joyce, aka on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

atlanta + amsterdam: vintage

atlanta, left:

growing up, there was always a polaroid camera in our house, somewhere. left on a shelf, loaded with a half pack of film, mostly forgotten. save for the few occasions deemed worthy enough to warrant a polaroid picture. a backyard cookout, a newly redecorated bedroom, a first dance. I don't remember the polaroids so much as the presence of the camera, the casual availability. this is what it was to be a kid in the seventies and eighties. you grew up with polaroid. that flash pop zip whir sound and the magic of an image appearing in slow motion, in your hands, before your very own two eyes. this is not what it is to be a kid today, not even close, picture taking looks infinitely different. but I'm happy to report (giddy, actually) my own two kids are growing up with polaroid cameras in the house. too many, maybe, but they'll have the memories. they'll have the polaroids. and if if I do my job right, they'll keep polaroid alive long after I'm gone.

amsterdam, right:

growing up, joyce shot with the iconic kodak instamatic just like that one pictured above. gifted to her by her grandmother when she was just twelve or thirteen, this little camera cracked open the world of photography for her. it came from the world war II photography shop her grandmother owned in amsterdam but has long since closed. who knew what that little camera would lead to? that it would lead to this moment? how can anyone know, really, what will happen when you put a camera in the hands of someone? what they will see with it, see through it, what stories will find their way onto rolls of film, to be bathed in chemicals and born as the photographs that lay testament to that one profound truth: I was here, we were here, and this is the story.

(more from my co-collaborator over in amsterdam, joyce, aka on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

dots

"a photograph is a universe of dots. the grain, the halide, the little silver things clumped in the emulsion. once you get inside a dot, you gain access to hidden information, you slide into the smallest event. this is what technology does. it peels back the shadows and redeems the dazed and rumbling past. it makes reality come true."

-don delillo

atlanta + amsterdam: cars

atlanta, left:

a little sky blue volkswagen bug I pass on my way to pick ezra up from school. mostly, this is not a town of volkswagen bug lovers. or, small car lovers, for that matter. this is a town of big car lovers, giant car lovers, multiple car lovers. which is probably why the sight of this guy each day makes me so happy. it fills me with hope.

amsterdam, right:

a vintage fiat 500, crazy popular in amsterdam because they're so tiny and easy to park. and cute. oh my goodness, cute, the very definition of cute. go ahead, look it up in the dictionary. under the word 'cute', you will find this car.

(more from my co-collaborator over in amsterdam, joyce, aka on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

atlanta + amsterdam: flowers

atlanta, left:

when I see that patch of tall, yellow, spindly sunflowers start to bloom here in georgia, I know. fall is here. fall, season of butterscotch-colored leaves and indian summer afternoons. in-between weather so perfect you wish it would stay forever and ever, amen.

amsterdam, right:

there's not a lot of space in amsterdam. people are packed in there quite nicely, or so I've heard. and so they do what they can to plant colorful flowers in the space that they have. sometimes that means a patch of a little something growing alongside the pavement, where folks often live in what's known as souterrains. souterrains, a perfectly lovely french word meaning 'basement'. leave it to the french to make basement living sound lovely. and leave it to the dutch to make a patch of concrete a beautiful, beautiful thing.

(more from my co-collaborator joyce over at on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week project here)

long live instant film

last week's offerings for polaroid week aka fall 'roid week 2015. the full set is here, a few of my favorites are here and well, happy monday.

atlanta + amsterdam: signs

atlanta, left:

the old clermont hotel: seedy, unyielding. permanently fixed along one of the city's most beloved arteries, ponce de leon avenue. ponce, we call it. I'm certain it was something back in the day, before the drug addicts and the prostitutes got to it. you can almost see people in black felt hats and shiny shoes coming and going. it sits empty now, save for the infamous clermont lounge housed in the back. broken windows like missing teeth, paint chipped and peeling, construction signs on the marquee. the place sits and it waits. for the inevitable boutique hotel makeover. when we were first married back in 1994, we lived in an old apartment building behind the clermont and for six years, we watched the comings and goings, for six years, we collected the stories. the old clermont became a fixture in our lives, too. like that great uncle, you know the one-- mostly sour around the edges but with eyes that twinkle,  sort of, if you look really hard.

amsterdam, right:

a beautiful arrow from the streets of amsterdam, story unknown. which, sometimes, is even better because then you can make up your own.

(more from joyce's point of view over at on a hazy morning//more about our twelve-week collaboration here)

atlanta + amsterdam: bikes

atlanta, left:

we are not known for our bikes here in this town. we are a city that loves our cars. we do not love our traffic, we curse our many highways but we will not give up our cars. and I really wish we would because bikes are nice, bikes are nicer, bikes are nicest.

amsterdam, right:

city of bikes, teeming with bikes, busting at the seams with bikes. in fact, joyce told me there are roughly 900,000 bikes in amsterdam, that there are actually more bikes than inhabitants. well, we do not have 900,000 bikes in atlanta. but I bet we have 900,000 cars.

(more of joyce's perspective over at on a hazy morning//more about our twelve week collaboration here)