Waiting For PA
The Facts:
1. I left New Haven on November 3rd to return to York, Pennsylvania to vote in the 2020 presidential election. These photographs were made on that trip from November 3rd through November 6th between New Haven, Connecticut and York, Pennsylvania. While the country and myself watched for Pennsylvania (along with a few other key states) to be declared red or blue deciding the future of this country's leadership, I photographed out of my car window while I was waiting for PA.
2. Yes, I know I didn’t fill out the travel form and I’m sorry about that but we’re past that.
3. I’m from York. York was the first capital of the United States, well, or the fourth depending on the timeline you follow or who you talk to. But in elementary school they really prided themselves on sharing with us that York was the first capital. Most of the people in those elementary school classrooms married each other and stayed in their first capital.
4. In the 2016 presidential election when a black hole was ripped open, York played a big part in Trump’s win and in the following tear in space. That statement was displayed prominently on the cover of the York Daily Record that I found on my grandparents' stone fireplace four years ago. Maybe a black hole wasn’t ripped open but just exposed more clearly for a larger public to see a darkness that has been looming, that has been here waiting for the right combination of time and light.
5. My parents, grandparents, and step-parent all voted for Trump. Honestly, it’s not a huge point of contention when I go home, but when it is brought up I’ll usually just go grab a beer.
6. I was decently hungover when I left New Haven. Critiques were the night before and anxieties were high with the coming day. Beers, cigarettes, and the company of friends helped push the anxieties to the side for the evening in the darkness closed in by silhouettes of the homes leaning over the fire pit. This community in the darkness was something I needed, that I think we all needed, even knowing I had to get up early to drive to PA in hopes to avoid the after work rush voting line at the gymnasium behind the church next to the skatepark.
7. When I left New Haven, Paul Fusco’s RFK Train images and atmosphere filled my head. The head that was darting in multiple directions with no grounding, an influx of caffeine and that warmth behind my eyes. That warmth which presents itself when you’re running on a few hours of restless sleep.
8. But opposed to there being a dead politician's body in my car as there was on the train, the dead body took the form of the exterior deteriorating, torn, and rapidly shifting landscape passing by on all my sides as I pushed through traffic double taking down the River Styx of I-95. A River Styx that I would be able to turn around and return up stream rather than float with the others into oblivion, hopefully.
9. I tried listening to podcasts that seemed relevant to the time, trying to get my news without looking at the news, trying to prepare. But the voices were so irritating with their saliva smacking so precisely. The switch to a booming bass and rhythm was the vibration I needed to add onto the popping flash and shutter. A vibration that filled my atmosphere above the asphalt for the next three and half days.
10. There aren't any Trump or Biden signs depicted. They weren’t interesting for me.
11. The constant of my body and mind behind the windows flowing through the variety of roads allowed for time and space to collapse into one vision and experience even in the disparate landscapes.
12. The car became a vessel to move through and acknowledge the physical surroundings allowing me to be transported to other worlds by way of these rapidly disintegrating digital pixels.
13. I think I may still be in the river.
The Facts:
1. I left New Haven on November 3rd to return to York, Pennsylvania to vote in the 2020 presidential election. These photographs were made on that trip from November 3rd through November 6th between New Haven, Connecticut and York, Pennsylvania. While the country and myself watched for Pennsylvania (along with a few other key states) to be declared red or blue deciding the future of this country's leadership, I photographed out of my car window while I was waiting for PA.
2. Yes, I know I didn’t fill out the travel form and I’m sorry about that but we’re past that.
3. I’m from York. York was the first capital of the United States, well, or the fourth depending on the timeline you follow or who you talk to. But in elementary school they really prided themselves on sharing with us that York was the first capital. Most of the people in those elementary school classrooms married each other and stayed in their first capital.
4. In the 2016 presidential election when a black hole was ripped open, York played a big part in Trump’s win and in the following tear in space. That statement was displayed prominently on the cover of the York Daily Record that I found on my grandparents' stone fireplace four years ago. Maybe a black hole wasn’t ripped open but just exposed more clearly for a larger public to see a darkness that has been looming, that has been here waiting for the right combination of time and light.
5. My parents, grandparents, and step-parent all voted for Trump. Honestly, it’s not a huge point of contention when I go home, but when it is brought up I’ll usually just go grab a beer.
6. I was decently hungover when I left New Haven. Critiques were the night before and anxieties were high with the coming day. Beers, cigarettes, and the company of friends helped push the anxieties to the side for the evening in the darkness closed in by silhouettes of the homes leaning over the fire pit. This community in the darkness was something I needed, that I think we all needed, even knowing I had to get up early to drive to PA in hopes to avoid the after work rush voting line at the gymnasium behind the church next to the skatepark.
7. When I left New Haven, Paul Fusco’s RFK Train images and atmosphere filled my head. The head that was darting in multiple directions with no grounding, an influx of caffeine and that warmth behind my eyes. That warmth which presents itself when you’re running on a few hours of restless sleep.
8. But opposed to there being a dead politician's body in my car as there was on the train, the dead body took the form of the exterior deteriorating, torn, and rapidly shifting landscape passing by on all my sides as I pushed through traffic double taking down the River Styx of I-95. A River Styx that I would be able to turn around and return up stream rather than float with the others into oblivion, hopefully.
9. I tried listening to podcasts that seemed relevant to the time, trying to get my news without looking at the news, trying to prepare. But the voices were so irritating with their saliva smacking so precisely. The switch to a booming bass and rhythm was the vibration I needed to add onto the popping flash and shutter. A vibration that filled my atmosphere above the asphalt for the next three and half days.
10. There aren't any Trump or Biden signs depicted. They weren’t interesting for me.
11. The constant of my body and mind behind the windows flowing through the variety of roads allowed for time and space to collapse into one vision and experience even in the disparate landscapes.
12. The car became a vessel to move through and acknowledge the physical surroundings allowing me to be transported to other worlds by way of these rapidly disintegrating digital pixels.
13. I think I may still be in the river.
