The Road to Nowhere

A Series For Nobody But Us and The Return of the Dance Class Book Club (no. 4!)

My 12th post on Substack was called Lockdown Hearts. I wrote it before most of you started following along, and honestly, you didn’t miss much. If you're curious, it's here. The post touches on the challenge of finding and making art during Covid, which eventually led to a photo series called Lockdown Hearts. I really liked a few of the early images, particularly this one:

I never had big ambitions for the series. I just enjoyed taking them when I happened to be out, and they reminded me of that strange time in our lives.

I’ve kept adding to it now and then, whenever I see one that catches my eye. Since I don’t really have a plan for them, I figured I might as well share a few more here. This feels like a good home for them—better than trying to do something more formal, which I’m not interested in, because I just don’t love them enough. They are simple, and fun, and repetitive in the way I find satisfying.

OK, here are a few of the newer ones:

So, unless the quality of these photos really improves, this is where they will be seen, and maybe on Instagram, I don’t know, it feels pretty dead over there.

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It has been awhile since a Dance Class Book Club, the club where you guys *fight (*email) to get free photo related books. It has been so long for a few reasons, I’ve been weirdly busy (for summer anyway), my daughter’s dance class ended about a month ago (but her Dance Camp started today!) and also one of the books I would have normally mailed off, I decided to keep (Stephen Shore, Modern Instances).

If you’re hesitant to join the book club, here’s a recent glowing review I received by email:

“Your package has been delivered. Contact WWW.USPS.com with further questions. Thank you for using the U.S. Postal Service.”

Not bad, right?

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The book for today is Double Click; Twin Photographers in the Golden Age of Magazines by Carol Kino.

Here is a bit about it from Simon and Schuster:

The McLaughlin twins were trailblazing female photographers, celebrated in their time as stars in their respective fields, but have largely been forgotten since. Here, in Double Click, Carol Kino brings these two brilliant women and their remarkable accomplishments to vivid life.

I’m not sure I’d go as far as saying it “brings to vivid life,” but it’s a good book, and I really enjoyed large parts of it. The twins went to the same college as I did, which was fun to read about, and they were impressively motivated and creative. I especially liked reading about how they came up in the industry during World War II and the decades that followed. I’m also interested in the “Golden Era of Magazines,” but I found myself a bit lost when the book veered away from the twins and into the lives and work of others in the industry. Those stories were interesting, but I often wished they had been told separately—though I understand why Kino chose to include them.

Anyway, the book is good. I enjoyed it, and it sent me googling other people and events that that were touched on, and I always enjoy that.

If you want me to mail you this book, let me know. I was having my daughter choose who received the books, but she always says “who asked first?” and then I feel pretty dumb for including her in my brilliant idea to spend my own money mailing people books.

Thanks,

Travis

While writing this I was listening to: