Mid-September

J: It's getting cold out. It's starting to feel like winter.

K: No. It's September. This is what they call "fall." It gets colder later.

They will harvest the corn in November to make all the candy bars and cola we can eat. I had no idea it was harvested so late.

September 15

September 14

September 13

September 12

Iodine

How I spend the memorial day.

September 11

September 10

September 9

September 8

Emerging

I took some time today to head to the local cemeteries. I was missing a few of my stone-dates, one of which was coming up this week. We went to three graveyards and were able to find all my missing dates for the year! Now I will have to go through to see which ones I would like to redo, and I would like to have some with snow and ice (I will take in December or so), but otherwise, all done! Hooray for finishing a project (kind of)!

Living in a small town like Crawfordsville, the historically prominent figures are ever-present in the forms of famous homes, street names, town names, legacies at the college, etc. To walk through the cemetery and know so many of the names was slightly eerie. Above, you see a rather eccentric stone to a former Wabash professor (where I teach). These are gentle reminders that all people, great and small, find a resting place eventually. I think the inscription is funny, like a loaded allussion I will have to investigate from historical accounts of the man himself. "A Maker of Men" could refer to the constant revisitation of the debate to make the college co-educational. It could mean he was a cruel teacher. It could mean he was an admirable teacher. It could mean he experimented with Frankenstein-like ideas. It could mean he thought of himself as god.

This little skeleton was on one of the graves. It is the discarded skin of the nymph cicada, still covered in the mud it was living in for some number of years before its emergence this summer.

This is Crystal and I with Lew Wallace. I don't know if he also emerged from the ground this summer for the Montgomery County celebration. His grave seemed in order today, though there is the photographic proof from last night!

September 7

September 6

September 5

Teaching

At the beginning of the term, there are new faces, new students, new adventures to be had. Students come to class with preconceived notions of what art and photography are or can be.

I am excited to see what will happen, what they will make, what they will say when they see art, theories and ideas that are new to them. Students' perspectives are so unique in the beginning, unhindered by all the images, images, images that I have seen.

It is easy to take my own knowledge for granted as 'obvious' or commonsense, yet I am often surprised by how complicated images are, how difficult they are to talk about. I know it will be a struggle for my students, but I envy them to be learning this for the first time, to be surprised and awed by the power and magic of the photograph. It is so enriching to learn something deeply, but also so actualizing to learn something for the first time.

September 4

Look out for the overwhelming wave

Somehow my world has become so full, so busy, I can hardly take a moment to remember a leisurely float down the river. There is a single song on my playlist/iPod/alarm clock/laptop/iPhone, that plays over and over, and repeats in my mind, but I am not tired of it. It is melancholy, but persistent. This, I will also be.

P.S. My video is fifty-one minutes and nine seconds right now. I am hoping to trim down twenty minutes. Is it even possible?

September 3

September 2

September 1