Series

In art school, I was required to do a photo series as part of my assignments. To some extent it was the most maddening experience I’ve ever had because I always felt like I was just pulling something out of my arse instead of having this really focused vision of some element of life or subject matter that demanded my attention. Eventually, I’d just do an odd, semi-silly narrative based theme that helped me realize story telling was more for me than serious analytical photography. Thus film school came next.

Years later though, I find myself yearning to go back to my roots. The photo series haunts the nether regions of my mind. One photo I took last year in paticular begs for compainions. I was working on a shoot in the parking lot of some random strip mall in Barstow when I decided to look through the lens of my Canon in search of the hidden beauty of this, the most common of places. I’m not sure that I found any but what I did find was an assortment of garish colors and straight, fabricated lines that when pushed together formed over-simplified icons of consumerism.

This image always had a behind the scenes quality to it for me. I’m not entirely sure were I would go with the examination of this kind of subject matter. I have a feeling I’d get wrapped up in the lines again and lose the point of lovingly mocking the everyday attempts at seduction these places attempt with us.

They try and draw us in with hissing and popping lights, low, low prices and the occasional waving mascot. These places aren’t the big leagues, they aren’t the places you plan to go to, that you want to be in. They’re the place that you end up. Maybe something better was closed. Maybe you’re too tried or drunk to travel farther than safely recommended by your state of mind. In any case, they’ll always be there. Easy to ignore, but hard to forget in a pinch.

Visually it’s a hard story to translate and I’m not sure I’m up for crawling around a P.F. Chang’s parking lot late at night again but I’m thinking it’d be a good exercise for me to attempt. Watch out Five Star Liquor Mart, here I come!