Concrete Eye
The Gift of Time & Boredom
Joseph Spolar, Photographer
Joe is a high school science teacher and lifelong photography hobbyist. Quarantining 6,000 miles from home challenged his Abstract Eye.
Find his work on Instagram. #abstracteye, @jospophoto
Now, in his words, one photographer’s experience during lockdown.
My photographic vision- which I have historically referred to as “abstract eye” has been transformed during the coronavirus quarantine. I used to wander streets, gardens, and desired destinations where I knew nature thrived. Photo excursions happened when I had time; I too rarely made time. Now, locked endlessly between four cinder block walls, the gift of time is endless. Every day presents the challenge of capturing unique images as well as “life in lockdown”.
Abstract eye has always sought to see the world in ways few others might notice. I thrive on glimpsing a puzzled look on a face that asks, “what are you seeing”? Now, seeing my own limited space in new ways, every day, challenges me to notice the beauty and detail in things I have usually overlooked. Whether it be creating images of concrete objects, such as dishware, water, or a faucet, or capturing the repeated abstract effects of the sun and shadows dancing through my apartment, the rhythm of confinement oscillates from boring to inspiring. For now, my spouse is the only witness to this process. Teaching my eye to see with a new perspective sparks a creative challenge that often fails, but that refined eye also helps me discover interest in new subjects almost everywhere.
Searching for that inspiration has fueled me. Recording the experience presents yet another challenge. By being forced to observe the outside world through the same 5 windows, confinement has created, in me, a character like Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window. Life continues to happen out there. What stories can be woven from the threads of life observed in this strange, parallel existence? An unknown neighbor becomes a friend each night when citizens applaud medical heroes. Laundry is hung out to dry, people get exercise with a walk on a roof, and a few essential workers board the train each day. Nature marches on as the stars and the moon traverse our view; and birds, free to explore, tease the imagination of what was once “normal” life. I search for images that might endure or capture an experience that we wish had never happened, yet will never forget. How to document that life, that existence, that gift of time and boredom, will fill a bit of the chasm created by a virus that none of us will ever see.
