On Waking

On Waking
Artist Book
2021
5.5 x 7 digitally printed on Rives BFK & Mingeishi Paper

On Waking is an artist book that embodies the spirit of a walk and poses walking as a kind of awakening. Through movement one is able to process their surroundings. Paths through the city are taken repetitively, on the way to a lake, grocery store, or bus stop. It takes time to fully grasp details of the houses one recognizes. We begin to know the animals of the neighborhood and track the furniture left out on the boulevard. Through this repetition one creates an intimacy with their environment.

On Waking is composed of poems and images: photographs I’ve taken and others collected online through Google Image Search. These images were ‘found’, as if retrieved from the side of the road. I look for images that have become online debris: photographs uploaded as reference images for municipal governments or in house listings. When I find something I like I use reverse Image Search and sift through the results. For example, one image included is a reference photo of a paintball field in Patterson, NY. For this book, I collected about forty-five photographs, along with my own photographs and physical scraps cut out from books. Through the drafting process I narrowed it down to nine images. I see walking (or simply movement) as a way to wake oneself up, to move one’s body and work through discomfort. The poems depict travelers, the peaceful and the insomniacs, reflecting on clouds and light. Following images of pavement and fossils, one notes the change in weather and the time passes. The centerpiece of the book is a poem titled: a road, a story where the character’s feet are stuck in fresh mud in early spring. This book cherishes the moments when the walk has paused, been interrupted, or just ended in exhaustion. The walk is represented in the linear pacing of a book.