So it's not all
happy couples looking adorable at this job. Sometimes a girl has to attend educational conferences (or, you know, editing or office stuff or taxes or etc. etc. etc.) Last week, I went to the
LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph down in Charlottesville, Va. I'm happy to say that I've already met up with some new friends and have started the planning for a large-scale personal photography project - so it's gotten my ass in gear about a handful of things, at least.
I'm an impulsive and independent traveler. Last year, I happened to be in Charlottesville during the festival, and noticed all these photographers everywhere and big photographs hung down the main shopping strip. So I went home and signed up to be part of the next one. Seemed cool enough, didn't cost so much - I'm in. I then proceeded to book a group house, with just myself to fill one of the six sleeping spots. Someone will come, I figured, and they did! I met five very wonderful people in my group house and nobody got robbed or stabbed or anything.
I put myself in situations like this hoping to walk away inspired. It's intimidating hearing from photography greats - who so often tend to be totally blasé about their accomplishments - and for some they get depressed about not being able to achieve. I get inspired to push harder, which is really a nice side effect.
If you travel enough, you learn how to have the best time in the given situation. I know that I do really well when I surround myself with new people and I have a pretty good idea of how to find the right folks to put in front of me (hi new friends!) But then I just need to go out on my own. Fortunately, photography for me is a very solitary thing. I don't work well with others, so I can set out to take some images and have it be completely alone time. Even if I'm photographing people.
(Sorry Nathan.) The used bookstores in town (and there are a freakin' ton of them!) had been pretty well-scavenged for photo books worth picking up.
We stayed at an Airbnb rental with a very nice man named Alp. Here we are riding in the back of his truck while he lets a dog sit up front. As a side note, it's really tricky to take pictures when you're attempting to sit on the wheel bed of a truck. Poor Alexis got quite an eyeful up my skirt.
Spent a few days with this pretty cool cat.
Nathan is somebody to contend with!
It was pretty great. I want to put myself in more situations like this in the future. Especially considering LOOK3 isn't coming back next year. Onward!
In any case! I was kind of all over the place in August this year, but this past week spent four days in Boston. It's a hell of a town, with tons of stuff to see and scads of events going on every day. If it weren't so damn cold nine months out of the year, it would be really ideal for spending a big chunk of time.
I'm good at traveling by myself. It gets lonely, sure, but I get to do whatever I want at any particular moment. A sweet bonus to solo travel is that you can often snag a seat at the bar of two-hour-wait restaurants - just walk on up and they put you in one of the gaps created by more sociable diners.
My trip included karaoke (my go-to is Maggie May), a little bit of drunken debauchery (with the other hostel travelers), plenty of Freedom Trail learning, buying books from the Harvard Bookstore, witnessing a bizarre and fascinating Italian parade that included throwing tons of shredded paper into the street, way too many pastries, way too many indulgent dinners, endless walking, multiple books read, and just a few photos taken.
For me, a photo trip is a distinctly different trip than other kinds of travel. A photo trip is work in a way that I was not interested in working here. So you just get a handful of images, because I only took a handful. Little flavor of Boston, perhaps.
Must go back soon.
I'm very lucky to live so close to these institutions that shape our lives. I love that I can, on a whim, head down to the Supreme Court to witness history. We stood in the blazing sun for a good half hour, chatting with those around us and holding our palms up like visors. We got on tip-toes to see if something was going to happen on the steps... no one seemed official. Sweat dripped off everyone's foreheads and necks. And then a cheer erupted ahead of us, and spread through the crowd like a wave. "Wooo! Yeah!" we shouted. "What are we happy about?" Everyone looked around in confusion. Some people were very excited, somewhere else in the crowd, but why are we excited? We started pulling out our phones, checking Twitter and news feeds. "DOMA is unconstitutional" @SCOTUSblog tweeted.
It's somewhat awkward for me discussing marriage equality. I was legally married without hiccups, get full spousal rights automatically and enjoy all the privileges of having a man-woman legal marriage. But marriage equality is extremely important to me, and yesterday feels like a big victory. But how much am I allowed to cheer? How much am I allowed to celebrate? I don't want to overstep my bounds - I can join in this fight but it's not mine to win or lose.
I had thought about doing some kind of promotion in celebration of the SCOTUS rulings yesterday - freebies for same-sex or non-heteronormative couples - but isn't that sort of what we're working against? If love is love is love, you all have to pay!
Suffice to say that I'm thrilled with yesterday's rulings. The country has made a dramatic shift in its thinking about same-sex marriage over the last couple years, and yesterday will be just one blip on the journey to full marriage equality. There's work to be done, but in the meantime, come on down and get your wedding photos.