Succulent | Conway, AR | September 2019
Flora #1 | A young woman at a nearby table talked on her phone as if I couldn’t hear her. “Oh my God, there’s this old guy, like, he’s right here, right in front of me, taking pictures of a stupid houseplant. Can you, like, imagine? It’s just sad.” I get that a lot. People are mostly amused, but sometimes uncomfortable, with me photographing chipped toenail polish, an outhouse door, or leaves inside a bank or restaurant. It seems, well, unseemly to focus on that which we intentionally, collectively ignore. French fries spilled on a checkerboard floor or seagulls fighting over a diaper — it’s not the scenes that are unnerving but rather “this old guy” spotlighting such moments while, even worse, thinking they could be art.
IrwinFoto 