One Street Block, 2020

It was five o’clock and 90 degrees out. I could feel the restlessness in my spine—that ache that never really leaves no matter how you twist. I needed to make something, and I needed something to do. So I took my camera and began to walk. On Grand Avenue I devised a structure: between Gorham and Carne I would stop and photograph each telephone pole on the opposite side of the street from me. I would walk there and back and try to make the same photograph each time. In photographing I found a new routine, and time became endless. Sweat from my eye and brow clouded the viewfinder, but the afternoon became bearable. The movement, the repetition, and the heat became a sort of calm. I was allowed to create but not to think, and that left me in a state of freedom and excitement while the gravel crunched under my feet.