this stretch

letting a place just be.

There’s a stretch I pass through often. It’s the kind of place where, if someone asked what’s there, you’d say not much.

Just a row of practical buildings. A narrow pavement. Tiny car park with oil marks pressed into the ground like old thinking. Cables lattice the sky. A twenty something year old guy pushing crates of over uneven concrete, headed for the konbini.

A lot of places can feel edited now. Even the quiet bits seem aware they’re being watched. Corners rehearse their stillness. Cafés perform effortlessness. Even decay can feel arranged, when it it photographed enough times.

Not this stretch though. This place isn’t ready for anything but yet another ordinary day.

It doesn’t rehearse anything. It doesn’t suddenly sparkle when sunlight finds it. It doesn’t deepen into meaning when it rains. It doesn’t become poetic because I walk through it. It stays exactly what it is.

And I feel protective of that.

I want places like this to remain unnamed.

Not elevated. Not rediscovered. Not reframed as secret.

Just left as ground.

Just a place where being is enough.

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Thank you to everyone who has bought a zine. I’m honestly a little stunned by the enthusiasm. Truly grateful. I’m packing them up and working on getting everything out to you this week. Almost there.

There are a few zines left, just incase you are thinking of buying one. I have also updated my little store with some couple of collages and a zine I made a few years ago based on decoding some of Tokyo’s ordinary details. Take a look here.

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