ISAAC MARION'S NOOD PIX

Wow. "Locals" is hauntingly beautiful when looking at the photos alone — like stumbling on a village lost in time — but your words...oh God, your words. Do you have the poetry in mind as you're shooting, or does it come to you after the fact? (And did I mention, Wow?)

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:04:45 -0700

Occasionally I have an idea of what kind of story/poem I might write from the first moment I see the thing I’m going to photograph, but in most cases I don’t plan ahead. I edit the photos and upload them to Tumblr and then I drink some coffee and stare at them and just start writing. It’s a very instinctual thing. Google “psychography.” It’s something like that.

“LOCALS” Click the first image for a slideshow...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 20:39:34 -0700

We are a close community. We take care of our own.

We raise our young with the correct values.

They grow as they should. They live as they should.

And they raise their young in the same manner.

Everyone feels the eyes of everyone, on their backs, their hearts, their spines.

There are consequences for straying from the path. We can not allow deception to spread.

We have known dark times and hunger, and we do not wish to again.

So we make corrections when necessary.

We have our children to think about.

Our children. Our children.

“LOCALS”

Click the first image for a slideshow photo-poem.

(Public art statues in Raymond, WA)

There are 196,939,900 square miles on this planet. Give me...

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:00:39 -0700

There are 196,939,900 square miles on this planet. Give me 1/50th of one of them.

Two lawn-chairs, some sand, a few bits of driftwood. That’s all I need to build my estate.

A flicker of clarity. The sense of a hand on your back, a voice...

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 19:00:45 -0700

A flicker of clarity. The sense of a hand on your back, a voice whispering, “This way.”

The forest is thick and dark, unexplored and unexplained, and...

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 19:00:51 -0700

The forest is thick and dark, unexplored and unexplained, and most certainly crawling with ghosts.

Race you to the edge of the world! GO!

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:00:51 -0700

Race you to the edge of the world! GO!

The sun is the only unselfish thing in our universe. It gives...

Sun, 24 Mar 2013 19:00:55 -0700

The sun is the only unselfish thing in our universe. It gives and gets nothing. It asks no gratitude, no gratification, no return on its investment. It demands no worship, no glory, no sacrifice. It only gives.

And man shall be buried with his tools.

Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:00:49 -0700

And man shall be buried with his tools.

Soviet-era apartments in modern Bulgaria. Everybody happy!

Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:00:52 -0700

Soviet-era apartments in modern Bulgaria. Everybody happy!

Rooftops of Sofia, Bulgaria. A strange city caught between eras.

Thu, 21 Mar 2013 19:01:08 -0700

Rooftops of Sofia, Bulgaria. A strange city caught between eras.

SEPARATE CAGES

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 19:31:00 -0700

We decided it was best that they be kept separate.

Although they were of the same species and had every reason to cooperate, to join together against their common enemies—hunger, the elements, and the brutal degradations of time on their tender bodies and minds—they seemed intent on destroying each other. They fought and clawed and caused irreparable damage to themselves and other specimens, so we separated them.

We wondered if perhaps they were not naturally evolved creatures after all but had been designed by some spacefaring comedians as a bit of cosmic slapstick, so misaligned were their modes of thinking. We marveled that they had a shared language, so differently did they use it. It was not broadcasting on the wrong radio frequency. It was mailing letters to a television. The wrong machine entirely.

What we found most puzzling was that they exhibited no desire to bridge these gaps. The males remained staunchly, fiercely male, shuddering away from even the smallest step toward their female counterparts, and the females recoiled with equal disgust, regarding the males as repugnant things that could not be understood, only changed.

They regarded each other with horror across the chasm of their differences, and when forced together by circumstance or primal desires, they scratched and fought and fouled their cages, until we had no choice but to intervene.

We could not decide how to continue the experiment. Separated, they would only evolve further apart, become more intensely themselves and more fiercely opposed to being anything else. And if kept apart long enough, of course, their species would cease entirely. Perhaps that would be the result of the experiment. Perhaps the only humane way to conclude it.

How long can you hold it? (Abandoned restroom at Discovery Park,...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 16:59:40 -0700

How long can you hold it?

(Abandoned restroom at Discovery Park, Seattle)

Good advice.

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 20:33:54 -0800

Good advice.

Baleen the Big Blue Whale, love of my life. Baleen is a 1977 GMC...

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 18:51:00 -0800

Baleen the Big Blue Whale, love of my life. Baleen is a 1977 GMC Birchaven and she has taken me up and down and across 7 states thus far.

Mud grass and shadow trees, and one little light murmuring,...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 19:00:40 -0800

Mud grass and shadow trees, and one little light murmuring, “safe.”

Every house is a haunted house.

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 19:00:42 -0800

Every house is a haunted house.

KEEP OUT. (Come in.)

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:56:21 -0800

KEEP OUT. (Come in.)

Where’s the fire?

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 13:34:19 -0800

Where’s the fire?

I stared at the tree till my eyes bored a hole. I could do this...

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:13:00 -0800

I stared at the tree till my eyes bored a hole. I could do this because it was a fake tree. All trees are fake trees. All things and places and people are fake. Bark, skin, national boundaries—thin plastic shells hiding worlds.

So I stared at the tree and bored a hole through it, and the world in the tree offered itself.

Lovecraftian playground. Go play on the eldritch horrors, kids!

Tue, 12 Feb 2013 19:01:00 -0800

What beast lurks in daylight shadows, horrid back hunched, coiled, ready...

The dark bridge to the otherside.

Do not be fooled by the light. The abyss awaits.

Lovecraftian playground. Go play on the eldritch horrors, kids!