I need to actually update my website...

[olivermoss]

I was originally going to call one gallery Portland 2020, but it's clear that 2020ness is extending far into 2021. Things are different than they were a year go. Every time I see that someone's mask is obviously well-worn and broken into to their face and ears I really want a picture of it as an interesting late-pandemic detail, but I am not going to approach people about shooting the way their ear straps are permanently dingy and ask to take a picture.

Anyway, I need to call the gallery something else, pick 8 pictures and stick a fork in it. I can always update it alter. But, I also need a new name. Portland: The Plague Years? IDK. Titling photo galleries is as hard a titling a fanfic.

I posted some of my skeleton pics to a local FB group and it's sparked a discussion about how the proliferation of skeletons in Portland is likely gallows humor due to the plague, or general plague-related morbidity. And okay yeah now that someone said that, it's obvious but I really didn't connect the sheer volume of creepy yard art with general morbidness. I chalked it up to Portland being Portland, and also fairie doors being passe.

Some of my other working titles of galleries in progress are 'Creepy Portland' and 'Portland Gotta Portland'.

I really want to go reshoot the wendigo, if it's still there, with the portrait lens. But I think tonight I am filling in some areas near Tabor so I can call the whole sector done. The wendigo is pretty far, but I really want to fill in that area on my map as well.

I have so much new material since I did my last update, I need to buckle down and make this happen somehow. I am so picky about what I put there, though, and I really need to nail down titles. Also deciding whether a picture goes in creepy, yard art or Covid Portland is a challenge.

Comments

[mistressofmuses]

I hate coming up with titles. Hate. It.

Portland Gotta Portland seems like a fitting one, though.

Hmmm... I hadn't really thought about it either, but the skeleton theme as a kind of... large scale memento mori seems both obvious and very cool.

That also reminded me of one bit of similarly-themed local yard art I wish I had gone to get a picture of, since it was mainly for Halloween, and went away midway through November: A skeleton riding a bicycle mounted on the house's mailbox. (The bike is a permanent fixture, but the skeleton was new. He had a helmet, which sometimes disappeared, so IDK if they were also using it sometimes or if someone took it, but it would reappear. They'd pose the skeleton so it looked like it was checking over its shoulder and signalling a turn... Due to the helmet, we called him the Safety Skeleton, and he was the bright spot of my commute to work each morning.)

[olivermoss]

That's cute!

I think also people staying home lead to an explosion in yard art. I really do not remember seeing quite this much before. I mean, I walk a lot but how regularly I have a fresh haul of pictures is nuts.

Yeah, titles are hard because it's hard to convey my feelings towards certain shots. It's sort of ... fond but also shaking my head when I see fairy doors with teeny political signs.

[dine]

oh man, "Portland Gotta Portland" is so perfect for some of what one sees around town (and what you capture in your shots)

[olivermoss]

There is a lot of oddities out there. I think some of the yard art explosion is also from people being stuck home, but a lot of it is skeletons. I found 3 or 4 more last night.