"Ballard Locks", or, Here I Go Maudlin.

Here, please enjoy nostalgic and fiercely maudlin documentary record in pictures of my once-favorite tiny piece of anonymous art: a pair of padlocks with hearts on them. Perhaps the spontaneous expression of a couple's desire to express a permanence of love that, like the MasterLock, could allow each participant in that love to withstand the bullets of fate; perhaps the expression of the recently dumped of their desire for such permanence; perhaps just something very cute bolted onto a derelict building during another tedious, drug-fueled evening among once-and-future strangers to each other--who knows?

I was obsessed by these during the few months here recorded (March through September 2006)--not coincidentally a very emotional time in my life. This series of photographs is now, as then, a perfect excuse to wax pretentious and just enjoy myself.

"Ballard Locks" - a photo essay

The site of these "Ballard Locks" is now a newly developed complex called the "Ballard Blocks", with Trader Joe's and various other things that once again show the triumph of progress and modernity over love.