Jordan Swartz-The Rad Times #18

Were the things that we wanted when we were still sixteen, only passing and fleeting or just too far out of reach? The Gaslight Anthem - ”We’re Getting a Divorce, You Keep the Diner”

By the time you read this, I’ll probably be heading south down 95, a road I’ve driven more than maybe any other in my life. I’m moving to Portland, OR from Lancaster, PA by way of Austin, TX; my life timeline has never been a straight line. For most of my life there’s been something inside that is hard to verbalize & few others understand unless they feel the same. None of my friends or family here can fathom why I’m moving again, but for the one’s who feel the same as I do, I can barely get a full sentence out before they’re nodding their head in agreement about whatever this desire is. I was recently turned onto the work of Mary Oliver & I keep returning to the line “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” Since I was young I knew I didn’t want to waste mine & sometimes that means moving across the country when no one else understands.

The below dates are where I’ll be for the next couple weeks, if you live anywhere between here & Portland hit me up.

Thanks for hanging!
Be good to each other.

Take Ivy was originally published in 1965 internally for the Japanese company Van Jacket. Sent by the founder to document American campus style, the photographs unwittingly created the style guide that we still see the ripples of today. Photo copied & passed between menswear designers, Take Ivy is a document of mid century America, & would be referenced by designers for decades to come.

I’ve been thinking a lot of "home” lately & that ties in nicely with the work of Do Ho Suh. Stitching together semi-transparent nylon mesh, he recreates homes he has lived in with extreme detail. The houses feel floating but solid, & speak to the idea of places past. They feel like you could walk right through the walls, but the structure of the form is still there.

My life, my love, my lady is the sea. There’s not much more I love than the ocean & when a friend recently showed me the work of Barbara Bosworth, I was immediately drawn in. While I like some of the other work, her series The Sea is what really grabbed me. Shot with large format, they become painterly & have a softness that can almost be felt as waves roll in. Some of them remind me of the work of J.M.W. Turner who I have long loved.

I recently finished the book Splinters by Leslie Jamison, a memoir about her divorce & the birth of her first child, it really wrecked me. It’s very honest & open about her own flaws & past mistakes, while navigating how it is you move forward after loss. It offered touching ways of looking at my own life, while reading about someone navigate theirs.

I’ve been on a photography kick recently, both making new photos & rounding up old projects for publication. I recently added a new series, Salt From the Sea, to my website. I’ve also been adding other recent stuff to my instagram, I’d love to figure out a way to share these on my personal site in a blog ish type way but haven’t figured that out yet.

In a quick 2 week turn around before I left town, my friend Johnny asked if I could do a mural for his barbershop. Johnny is one of the people I’ve been grateful to meet since being back on the East Coast, he’s running his shop true to himself & genuinely is trying to help others everyday.