Enter the Lomo’Instant Square

I don’t know why I jumped on the Lomo’Instant Square Kickstarter. Further, I don’t know why I went for the gorgeous Ginza Edition, with it’s orangey-brown leatherette and off-white plastic body. Sure, it’s pretty, but it was quite a bit more than the white, black, or Kickstarter editions. I do know why I splurged for the Mini back and a few packs of Instax Square film, but that’s about it, really.

But, boy, am I ever glad I did.

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The Night Time really is the Right Time

A reminder to myself first, as narrated by Abu Huraira, the prophet, peace be upon him, said

يَنْزِلُ رَبُّنَا تَبَارَكَ وَتَعَالَى كُلَّ لَيْلَةٍ إِلَى السَّمَاءِ الدُّنْيَا حِينَ يَبْقَى ثُلُثُ اللَّيْلِ الآخِرُ يَقُولُ مَنْ يَدْعُونِي فَأَسْتَجِيبَ لَهُ مَنْ يَسْأَلُنِي فَأُعْطِيَهُ مَنْ يَسْتَغْفِرُنِي فَأَغْفِرَ لَهُ

Our Lord, the Blessed, the Superior, comes every night down on the nearest Heaven to us when the last third of the night remains, saying: “Is there anyone to invoke Me, so that I may respond to invocation? Is there anyone to ask Me, so that I may grant him his request? Is there anyone seeking My forgiveness, so that I may forgive him?

So when I wake up at 4:15 am to shower and dress and roll off to work, I need to remember to spend some of that time remembering Allah, seeking His forgiveness, asking for His guidance, and seeking His forgiveness, because the nighttime really is the right time to be with the One you love.

Alex Webb – ‘The Suffering of Light’

‘The Suffering of Light: thirty years of photographs’ presents a sort of timeline of Alex Webb’s work from 1979 to 2009, in all their hyper, headache-inducing, overly-crowded excellence. I picked it up after reading a brief interview with Webb, or a quote or something, that suggested he was particularly proud of this monograph, and when I first flipped through it, I guess I was in a negative mood, because all I saw was the great hunks of totally blocked up shadows, and it’s taken me months of looking randomly, and a two hour session of careful looking (and reading) to really come to grips with it.

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