Detrius

Top: May 2006 // Nikon D70s, Nikkor 18-70 f/3.5-4.5   
Above: June 2023 // Nikon D700, Nikkor 50 f/1.4

When the creative agency I once worked for unceremoniously closed recently, I was surprised to spend little time thinking about it. The end was obvious when I was laid off nearly four years ago after 14 years of toil. The pandemic only delayed it. A former colleague wondered what all of the years were worth. The measure, I said in reply, is in the relationships forged under the pressure of deadlines, impossible asks and shared stress. Many of those bonds proved lasting, some dissolved. The work we made, which seemed so important at the time, ended up in a bin—literal and otherwise. I learned this humility early in my career as a newspaper editor. Our daily efforts in those days had a shorter life, most of it lining a bird cage or litter box by day's end. There was utility after all. Now, I scrape stories from the detrius, using the work as proof of an expertise, never forgetting how many hands it took to shape it.