Memory Motel #65
August 25th, 2025
The first sentence in Rick Barot’s poem The Wooden Overcoat says;
“It turns out there’s a difference between a detail
and an image."
I love this poem (you can read the whole thing here) and the questions it leaves me with. Where does an image start and stop, and when does the detail drip into description? Are all images details, are all images description? Recently I’ve decided, if you give anything enough attention, suddenly you have a photograph. There is something here too about giving it away - that thing I saw, I transformed the context and gave it away.
I have been in a writing slump, which I can blame on many legitimate factors, like illness and fatigue, and my body working in overdrive trying to make another body inside of it from scratch (I am 24 weeks pregnant today). But regardless of the worthiness of the cause, I’ve been in a writing slump. The practice of making pictures and the practice of writing have gotten blurry in my mind, but I’ve haven’t made much progress at the question on what images are in my words, and how I can imbue my writing with something more visual.
Being pregnant has also been a practice of blurriness. I have 3.5 months left until my outer world becomes momentarily sucked up in the vortex of caring for a newborn and I have all eyes on deck to focus this short time on quite literally anything else, but in reality I’m finding it challenging to think elsewhere. This week in an insomnia induced 4am mania I began wondering whether I identified as two bodies now, or one. I am carrying a body of someone I don’t know yet, but, I want to also let go of the image of my body as the only container or vessel.
Being the second pregnant person in my relationship has been a strange and good experience in surrender too. During Ana’s pregnancy I fought so hard to find my place in the process. It was her body that carried Etel, but I never wavered in the belief it was our pregnancy. When I expressed uncertainty to a friend recently on whether I would have a baby shower because it seemed possibly unorthodox to do so for the second baby in a household, she kindly reassured me “but this is your first baby”. I smiled at her reassurance, which was another way to tell me, I was worthy of celebrating, but I also recoiled at her meaning. Etel was and is my first baby. My womb does not make me mother, and that’s something I take comfort in. But in the same breath, I’m wondering what my womb makes me.
Behold: The artist must live very carefully. The artist becomes a mother to her work, or a mother to her womb’s work, so behold, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is not about seeing but possession and ownership, grabbing. Rather than a glimpse, a grasp”
This is a quote I earmarked from “Contradiction Days” by JoAnna Novak, my most recent read. I read it and circled around in my mind, what is my womb’s work? Can(‘t) I mother my work and my womb’s work? Where and what are those boundaries? Are the pictures I make about seeing (observation?) or possession (desire?)?
I’m scattered today, but in the spirit of surrender, I am letting it ride. Four pictures below, on a picture plane of my own making, which I declare as both detail and image. The description might live in the margins.
UPCOMING CLASSES:
A reminder for the upcoming online classes I am teaching which are coming up:
The Poetic Photograph (Wednesdays, Sept 17–Oct 22, 2025 12- 2pm) through Strudel Media Live, 5 weeks.
I just wrapped my first session of this in June, and it may be my new favorite class to teach. The first session sold out quick, so we’re offering it again, with just a few slots left.
Looking Inward: Photographing Family (Sunday, Oct 12, 2025) through Strudel Media Live, 1 session.
A fun & quick one hour workshop that is part lecture and part guidebook on how and why we make pictures of the people we love the most.
Photography 1: The Camera (Thursdays, Sept 4 - Oct 2, 2025 10am - 2pm) through ICP, 5 weeks.
Introduction level course for all experience levels.
Photography 2: Image & Workflow (Thursdays, Oct 9 - Nov 6, 2025 10am - 2pm) through ICP, 5 weeks.
Intermediate level course, following up on basics of digital photography.
Photography 3: Project & Portfolio (Saturdays, Nov 8 - Dec 13, 2025 10am - 2pm) through ICP, 5 weeks.
Advanced digital photography course.