Δ Light Readings : 002 - For Sale: Photo essay, never used

Light readers, hello!

For those of you who took the plunge and signed up before seeing a word of this, thank you. Today’s newsletter is a bit shorter—sent out bleary-eyed and frankly a little nervous for the day ahead.

The Written Photo Essay
I’ve been reading Peter Hessler’s wonderful The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution. In the passage below, he writes about visiting with government officials at their offices after President Hosni Mubarak had been ousted.

Behind the desk there was an empty nail on the wall. When I met with officials in the region, I learned to look for that empty nail, which was where the state-produced portraits of Mubarak used to hang. If a room had big windows, the nail was surrounded by a small rectangular patch that was a shade darker than the rest of the wall. Thirty years in the sun is a long time.

That last line… can you picture what a beautiful, subtle series of photographs this would make? The dark rectangle as a measure of time arrested—hidden from the sun and undiminished as all the color surrounding it was slowly bleached away in the sharp Egyptian light.

Currently
I’m reading Dave Eggers’ The Captain and the Glory: An Entertainment. So many times I’d (mentally) shake my fist at the book and think, “Eggers, this time, you’ve gone too far!” as I read this flagrantly over-the-top satire of our current times. I mean, there’s literally a character named Paul the Manafort. But mid-fist shake, he’d pull hard on the reins and go off in an unexpected direction that kept me hooked.

Devouring Pump Street Rye Crumb, Milk & Sea Salt chocolate. I don’t think there’s a more delicious bar of chocolate. I lean strongly towards Team Dark Chocolate, but this milk chocolate with bits of rye bread in it is (1.) a revelation in texture and taste and (2.) probably the most expensive bar of chocolate I’ve ever purchased.

Unauthorized Access
I’ve been working hard to try to gain access to a particular room in a particular building in DC, of great interest to photographers (or at least this photographer). The room is on the top floor, facing north over a quiet rear alley. It features a curious set of angled windows, purpose-built over 150 years ago. Light Readings #3 will document this attempt and its success or failure.

Fingers crossed.

Photo: En route to the Inari Shrine in Kyoto, Japan, April 2019.