I have so many things I want to write, I could die from it. But given that I’ve spent the past 12 days almost exclusively in the company of Caleb, who can’t bear that sound of me typing—his misophonia is, I believe, a Flea Fallacy—I haven’t been able to get it out.
I was getting kind of afraid that I liked being around people all of the time, but 12 days not being able to be by myself has certainly cured me of that.
In any case, I’m sick to death of posting pictures of myself, of writing about myself, of telling stories about my stupid fucking miniature Yorkshire Terrier. My entire blog is becoming like a fucking Facebook wedding album, and it makes me want to kill myself.
I cannot wait to return to my regularly scheduled misogyny.
Which is why I’m bringing you Ellen Susan, whose work I saw at the Jepson center in Savannah. Basically, she takes pictures of modern day US Soldiers using a format—wetplate collodion—that was used to capture soldiers during the Civil War.
The format is extremely difficult to use—the subjects have to sit perfectly still for a minute for it to work—but the resulting details are astonishing. I swear to god, the one above, of PFC William Burnett, from Sweetwater Alabama, taken in 2007 when he was 23 years of age, could have occupied me for hours. The freckles on his face are a map of melancholy. If I found out he was dead, I would weep.
Check out more of her work here. And if you are a soldier, apply to be photographed by her!
