urgency

I was working downtown and I had just completed a shift waiting tables at my night job. It was late… 11:30 or 12. I had planned to go out after work to see what I might discover. It was 2017 and such a weird time. Things that I never imagined taking place… were taking place. I figured if I could go out and make sense of the world through my photographs that maybe it would bring some solace.

In retrospect I bet I looked pretty out of place in my black slacks, my neatly pressed white button-down shirt and a black necktie. I stood next to my car with a camera in one hand and my flash in the other, trying to figure out why the gear that worked earlier in the day, was not working now. Then I saw something on the wall move. I looked over and yelled “stop!” A rat had frozen in time in the recess of a wall. It seemed as though it had listened to me? I framed the rat and attempted to make its picture, this time my gear worked. I told the rat to hold-on, it did… I wasn’t convinced by the first picture, I needed another. I tried 2 more frames without success. I moved a few steps closer and made another picture, this one also worked. I yelled “thank you” and it took off.

That’s how it began. I continued to walk the street until COVID hit and the country continued to progress in its unimaginable trajectory. These pictures are things I have stumbled upon while out walking the city in the dark. They are a reaction to my surroundings. Ultimately, these photographs are a visceral response to the abrasive tumultuous times.

— Adam J. Long