Struggles with the Senior

We’ve had a hard time for the last few weeks with caring for Wesker. She’s been struggling with the weather and her arthritis. When it’s rainy, she gets sore. When she gets sore, she doesn’t want to eat. So after trying a few different solutions, we decided to try a heating pad. She loves it and it has done a great job getting her more mobile and more comfortable.

But I am a bit concerned that it may be making her feel good enough that combined with her other medication she feels so full of vibes that she doesn’t feel the need to eat, thank you very much. I love my beautiful, fluffy child, but her golden years are definitely a lot of work for us. Work I would gladly do a hundred times over, but work nonetheless.

A Bit of True Crime

It’s September and, to celebrate the month of my birth, I’ve decided to review books from one of my favourite corners of literature — true crime. Not all of the books I’m going to review this month are traditional examples of it, but that’s partially what I love about them. They are all sideways looks at the darker aspects of modern life.

I’m starting with a photography book, Naked City by Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee. Weegee was a photographer in the rapidly changing world of 1940s. He is one of the first practitioners of what we have come to know as candid photojournalism as he worked alongside news services and the police to photograph everything from crowd scenes to fires to car accidents to very early Sunday mornings. Naked City is the first collection of his images and it is a not-to-be missed black-and-white and gritty celebration of urban life in all of its joys and sorrows. As well as life in general in all its resilience and fragility.

The Power of the Image

I think I love Weegee because he is a chronicler of daily life in days gone by. He doesn’t shy  away from the ugly parts, but he doesn’t deny the beauty of the ordinary moments that we all take for granted. The happiness of a baby being held by a parent. Getting lost in a movie. Even when life is at its worse, there is hope for tomorrow.

There’s a lot of magic in these images of dance halls and people living in a New York that is now long gone. This book reminds me of my grandparents and helps me imagine what it was like when they were young: the same in a lot of ways; different in many others. Seeing these faces that are probably no longer here is the warmest way to look at ghosts and keep their stories alive. It’s a connection that transcends death and time.

Words of Warning

I think it’s fair to warn that there are crime scene photos in this collection as well as accident photos, and photos of victims of fires. They are uncensored. They are raw. They are gruesome. If you do not like that content, Weegee is not the photographer for you.

That being said, I also think it’s fair to have a discussion about exploitation. There are images of corpses and images of unhoused people. There are images of those that could not have possibly given any kind of consent. Not that the concept existed when this book was published. It’s an issue that needs to be considered when reading these collections and evaluating the evolution of photojournalism and candid photography.

Fall is Coming

I’m a bit worried because the weather is turning and I know that we are in for more rain in the coming months. We need to figure out what works best for Wesker and how to manage the cold and the damp. That feels like a tall order when I already have troubles with it myself. But we’ll handle it together and the puffy senior lady will have good autumn.