Right at the top, Open Mike Eagle dropped his new album a tape called component system with the auto reverse and it’s beautiful. It’s not as raw as Anime Trauma + Divorce and for good reason, but it still has pockets of insight into the emotional toll the pandemic and isolation has taken on OME.  These two albums have hit at times I have felt at emotional low points, weirdly. Anime Trauma + Divorce came out very shortly before I deployed. I was on a submarine for a few months with no contact to the outside world. My ritual became waking up, eating, working for 6-12 hours depending on what was happening, eating, working out a few times a week, and returning to a bed barely bigger than my body where I’d put my headphones on and play AT+D. 

August through September had me in the same head space, albeit less trapped. The hikes I went on and the photos I made didn’t make me feel good and they didn’t help me recover from my day-to-day rut. However, October turned this around. I had a bunch of photo failures with the RB67 where photos are randomly blurry (sometimes I can take a crisp photo at 1/30 and blurry at 1/250?!), but I still made work that I knew instantly was going to make me happy. Pair that with making work with the 4x5 and 6x17 which always👏 always 👏 always 👏brings me joy while shooting because of how intimate the process is.

Finally, I managed to get a couple rolls of Lomo Purple developed that I shot probably back in May and forgot about. They were very hit or miss, but man the ones that hit REALLY hit for me.

Be on the lookout for the next post where I use some gear I got on loan from the San Francisco homies, Han and JP. I owe a lot to these two for their friendship over the years and I am thankful for everything they add to my life. I hope I do the same for them!