me
Howdy! My name is Ponders. I’m a writer, musician, sound designer, podcaster, from the look of things around here, a photographer.
I love taking pictures that tell stories, and telling stories that change the way we see pictures. Rather than shooting in the boxes of portraits and landscapes, I try to explore the interplay between the two. My favorite pictures exist in the overlap between place and people, geography and humanity, the built world and the stories that fill it.
For now, this is just a place to show off my favorite pictures that I’ve taken, but I’m hoping to make a couple of zines and offer prints in the near future.
My other projects include the narrative nonfiction art history podcast Accession, and the fairy folk tale fiction podcast The Wanderer.
this fragile world
Just before you reach the top of Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park, you’ll see a sign that reads: “Tundra Protection Area: Respect Closures and Tread Lightly in this Fragile World.” The first time I noticed it, I was struck by how poetic the phrase “in this fragile world” is, especially for a sign created by a government agency. (Albeit, my favorite one.)
Since getting into photography, I’ve become really interested in the philosophy and ethics of the medium. And when the shutter releases, I hope all those ideas are captured in the frame. Sometimes they will and sometimes they won’t. But I’m always trying to tread lightly in this fragile world.
gear
I shoot a mix of film and digital, but my heart really is in film. I’ve got a trusty Pentax k1000 for my more deliberate photography excursions, and an Olympus Stylus Zoom 170 for the day-to-day, quick and dirty stuff. For digital I’m shooting on a Fuji X-S10. (Recently switched from an X-Pro2.) And I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve taken some pictures on my iPhone X that I really love.
Most of the film shots you see on the site were developed at Indie Film Lab in Montgomery, Alabama.
Photo Credits: Polaroid by Jasper O’Daniel. Blurry film picture with flash by Patrick, who was two when the picture was taken.
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