These Traces 097

Jan 25

There's a link below to a review of Josef Koudelka's new biography, from Aperture/Magnum Foundation. After reading this, I immediately reached for my copy of Exiles, and lost myself in its dark pages. I say dark, but every image is a study in contrast, the whites just as crucial as the deep, inky blacks digging into the fabric of infinity. Every face and surface, every fragment of skin or land he captures, all material, as if meant for nothing other than imprinting a negative. Waiting to fill Koudelka's eye.

I sometimes long for the surreal dreamland of the wanderer, bound to life's geography, filled with photographic lust, but forever disengaged, and unattached to anything, or anyone, permanent. Existing in a temporary state, always fleeing, ravenous for the next frame, experience, lover, city, ocean.

The article speaks of empathy. Yes. But the solitude, at times, must be so, so profound. Freedom has a cost, like everything else.

…

I'm not sure when I first started reading Robert Breen's blog. I think it may have been while researching Obsidian. But I remember noticing a hiatus about a year ago… and then a post about his son dying in a motorcycle accident. God. Chilling words for anyone, but as a parent, unbearable. His son was Jacob's age.

He recently shared his experience of returning to a handwritten journal (alongside his Day One diary). How it's helped him process his grief, how the written word connects to a different part of him, another voice. I get that. In fact, his post is what prompted me to add the B5 journal (blog link below).

Rituals are important.
A new ritual—for a still “newish” year.

On to the links…