SUBSTACK: Biographies, life criteria, and photography as my rooted art form.
10.24.23 for Absolument !, my Substack channel
In every language that I am even a tad bit aware of, I confidently know the word for “yes.” It is probably my most utilized word in English, and definitely my go-to while I’m speaking French. When je suis fatiguée, it’s so much easier to say either “yes” or “no” than to explain the nuances of my thoughts and feelings. In the moments when I feel another layer of enthusiasm (think: an equivalent to “oh-my-goodness, yes!!!”), I reach for “absolutely!” You’ll hear me say this word with a huge smile attached to my face.
I wanted to create a space for the varied ideas that make me internally and/or externally say “ABSOLUTELY.” And since I’m living in France now—let’s sport ABSOLUMENT instead.
Some of these writings may have a theme, but for the most part, they’ll be a hodgepodge of what’s happening during my frequent daydreaming. I’m a visual thinker, excitable, and a huge information dork, so buckle up!
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Along with sunshine, summer brought me an obsession with TOAST, a brand of clothing and housewares from Wales. I couldn’t resist buying a fan to wave at myself in my AC-less home and car, and striped pillowcases to pretend that I was getting a night of rest after sailing across the Mediterranean. I think TOAST’s value to me exists beyond their products; I latched onto how they storytell through photography. TOAST’s vignettes place you in the life of a Helen-Frankenthaler-meets-Greek-donkey-riding-grandmother-meets-cozy-sweater-gal. Utility, knits, and color palettes out of your dreams. There’s no better way for me to describe it, fortunately and unfortunately.
After some digging, I found that the goodness behind TOAST’s photography is Jo Metson Scott (website/Instagram). Her tones are rich and the perspective she takes on her subjects is so unique to my eyes. Instead of photographing a silk scarf in a *product photography* way, she draped it over a face in the wind. Something flat is instantly sculptural.
Stalking Jo’s work pushed me into something I’ve been wanting to do for about a year and a half: find a DSLR camera. My Fuji had been cut off of my body while I was distracted at La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona and I took it as a sign that I needed to rejoin team Canon. After lots of research—and my partner scouring the French equivalent to Craigslist, Leboncoin—I found my new picture teammate.
I’m deeply affected by the sense of sight. What a gift to be able to engulf this world through my eyes! A camera is the perfect tool for seeing in an obvious way, but for me, the zoom of a lens also allows me to touch parts of the world beyond my normal reach. I see a tall chapel and want to absorb the texture of its topmost tiles. I can do that by capturing it in a photograph. Photography has been a rooted art form in my life—different cameras, film, color schemes, and editing preferences—all winding through my years. I miss my high school Polaroid phase the most. Today, I work full-time as an Archivist, organizing and caring for a legacy design collection containing hundreds of thousands of historic photographs. (The Eames approach to photography is something I could talk about for hours/days/years.)