Still stuck in a parking lot

Where no one wants to go
London, ON
November 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Here's another view of the tired old mall I explored over the weekend. The EXIF data tells an interesting, if somewhat trivial, story:

• Blue brick photo: DSC_3652 - 5:05 p.m.
• This brown brick photo: DSC_3663 - 5:09 p.m.

So 11 frames and 4 minutes separate the two. I can probably retrace the steps I took to move from the westward-facing blue wall in the first shot to the southward-positioned brown wall in the second. And in doing so tell you what I was thinking as I made the short trek and set up the second batch of shots from the crumbling concrete at the edge of the lot.

Why the hell am I sharing this? Because a photo isn't just a collection of pixels. It's the story that leads to the moment those pixels were recorded, the meta-story, if you will, that explains the context of the moment. I shoot not only because I like pretty pictures, but because the stories that surround them can matter as much as they do.

Sometimes - okay, often - I'll look back at what I shot and what I wrote, and I'll escape right back to the moments in time when I was shooting them. The people I was with. What we may have been chatting about. How I felt. Maybe about the lines of bricks and mortar. Or the unseen hands that laid them down all those years ago.

So, yeah, this is a stupid brick wall overlooking some busted shipping pallets in the corner of a ratty old building that probably should have been torn down years ago. I wouldn't want to be alone here at night, and even during the day it isn't a place I'd recommend visiting.

Yet here I am, drawing an indelible few moments in pixels. That's got to mean something to someone, even if that someone is just me.

I'm hoping, though, that you've got your own ridiculously weird places to explore, and your own unique stories to tell and retell, even if only to yourself.

It's how we navigate life. Or so I think I'm starting to figure out.

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