abstracts

At one point, I worked at a Ritz Camera shop in the Exton Mall, just outside of Downingtown, PA. That was back in 2005. I was a photo processor.

I hated every thing about that job, except the actual work.

I was 30 years old and working in a mall, another cycle of candle burning come to it's natural end.

I hated the annoying Middle-Management-ness of my "superiors."

I hated the bus I had to take to get there, so unpredictable that I'd take it an hour early, just to be safe.

I hated the music in the store, just low enough to not be heard, just loud enough to seep into my skin and vibrate there hours after I'd gotten back on the bus for the 45 minute ride home. (If I'd had a car, it would've only taken 5.)

I hated the slap-in-the-face paycheck and every micro-managed hour I put into it.

I hated the drone of the retail lighting and the knowledge that tomorrow would be the same same same.

I didn't last very long there. I had also taken a job at a restaurant in Paoli that I would come to love very much. At the beginning there were very few hours for me there, so I kept at both jobs for about a month. I made as much in two shifts at the restaurant as I did in 30 hours at the photoshop. This was both disheartening and hopeful, and I knew I just had to wait it out. I knew in time I'd get the shifts I wanted and a place behind the bar and my confidence back and the ability to see farther than the next shift.

A couple of good things did come out of my month in the mall:

1. The Postal Service (I couldn't resist borrowing an album titled "Give Up" from a coworker,) and
2. the following Pile of Happy Accidents (followed by the text from my original post on another site):

keep your eyes open. there are beautiful things in strange places. these were pulled from a photolab machine in the process of fixing a paper jam. the chemicals did all the work. all i did was set them aside, rinse them and dry them.

we spend our entire lives trying to find the language to make something as beautiful as these mistakes; these pieces of paper that jammed up the machine.

hmm.

I've scanned the 20 "abstracts" and uploaded them as individual posts, in hopes that someone might want to make a comment or leave some overwrought poetry on them.

If you're interested...

1. Click on one of the numbered individual posts accessible from this link.
   (i.e. abstract 06)
2. Clear your head.
3. Click on the image to view the much larger version.
4. Look at the thing.
5. Leave me a comment with what comes to mind.
6. Rinse.
7. Repeat.

Or, If you have something to say about the entire series, or my time as a Snapshot Expediter, leave a comment below.

Update: I found some pics of me from that job. I've uploaded them as a set on Flickr.