The Ink Blot that is . . . (2009)

This photo is very personal for me as it’s the state of mind I was in when I captured it. I was in Washington, D.C. accompanying a friend visiting a friend. After a delicious late dinner and a few drinks, I decided to part ways from the majority vote to patron a local dance club for a sole after midnight journey through D.C. which was foreign + unfamiliar.

I caught a taxi to the National Mall, primarily the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. I’ve always been fascinated with the reflection pool spanning between the two. Many monumental events have developed at this very spot throughout our nation’s history, all of which I’ve only seen through television or book. Thousands of people marched and gathered here in 1963 for Jobs + Freedom, it’s the location of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, and the 1969 Vietnam War Moratorium Rally saw millions gathered.

However, that night, at that hour, and virtually vacant; a peaceful calmness was in the air. An uncanny emotion to what I was expecting. It’s not that I expected for all those people to still be there chanting, protesting, and standing up for the cause. I guess it’s just the only impression I’d really ever had and perhaps subconsciously expected to walk into a shit storm.

A fresh rain had just come and gone previous to my arrival as the ground was wet and puddles remained. A few smoky clouds still filled the largest parts of the sky, passing quickly as if in a rush to dissipate and die over some other city. Although I was alone, in an unfamiliar place, at an hour when most sleep; I felt as calm, collected, and happy as I’d, for some time, could remember. It was a soul searching experience and I most definitely found a piece of it that night.