Allow me to explain myself. I set out to photograph a city via the node of bus stops. My city: Richmond Virginia. I've lived here for ten years, and I've seen neighborhoods come and come- fortunately, there has not been much *going* of the places I frequent. Yet, when one thing comes, another thing goes, even if it's just a parking lot. What I hoped to capture was a moment in time. Hundreds and hundreds of views of this city before any of it goes. ![[442.jpg]] *[[Existing Stop 442]]* Yet, I must define what "a moment in time is" and isn't. Capturing a moment in time is, in my opinion, the least interesting definition of photography[^1]. It is still a definition, but so much more can (and must) be said. More specific content must be added on to this notion of "capturing a moment." Anyone captures a moment when taking a photo, that goal is completely fulfilled. What I think of when I say "capture a moment" is the idea of necessary divergence and unexpected emotional estrangement. ![[2632.jpg]] *[[Existing Stop 2632]]* There is a joke in the film *Walk Hard*, when John C. Reilly, playing a comic version of Johnny Cash, leans against a wall deep in thought as an old man, and a bandmate remarks "Dewey Cox has to think about his whole life before he plays". And so it is with photography- each frame represents not only the bare visual record distilled through the lens, but the inscrutable artifacts of interests, circumstance, and motivation that has led a photographer to such a scene. And not only led them to the scene, but inclined the camera in such a way. ![[431.jpg]] *[[Stop 431]]* In other words, the individual photograph represents both a point of divergence for the subject photographed and a point of emotional estrangement for the photographer. more attention will be given to the emotional impact on the photographer, but for the time being, let us turn to the subject and consider this project of photographing a city. What does it mean to photograph a city? ![[3440.jpg]] *[[Stop 3440]]* Because [[Photographs are Divergent]], because they are forever receding from a present reality while remaining essentially unchanged, there is a profound capacity for an individual photograph to become something of a curious artifact. This capacity generally appreciates on a linear basis concomitant with time. This bears a similar relationship with the photographers internal life, but as stated, more attentional will be given this later. What I am essentially interested in, considering the city, is basically [[Anticipatory Nostalgia]]. More on this later, but let us begin by asking ourselves to imagine what *may* become significant in the future. ![[3898.jpg]] *[[Stop 3898]]* It is really impossible to know what will be significant or haunting or charming or historic when photographing a city. Because the city is a human artifact, it has the capacity to change, to be changed, to be honored or despised, and really to accumulate all manner of cultural meaning outside of what might be called an objective or immutable fact (i.e. water is wet, mountains are beautiful, the skies and depths are awesome and mysterious.) A city may be esteemed one day and burned the next, as has happened in the history of Richmond itself. ![[3900.jpg]] *[[Stop 3900]]* Anything in a city can become abruptly interesting, abruptly notable or infamous. Richmond has suffered and recovered from this fate in the Civil War. This is one intention I photograph a city with- a desire to anticipate what might be unusual before it becomes unusual. It is impossible, and a photograph might be boring until it isn't. I suppose the best approach to photograph a city, then, is to strive to see it with the freshest eyes. Not for the commodified beauty or notability of what is already esteemed, but for the potential and latent fascinations of the city. ![[3815.jpg]] *[[Stop 3815]]* It is impossible to raise the commodity-potential of images without taking a brief diversion to discuss social media and also so-called AI Image Generation. Statements about photography's ubiquity and the visual saturation of culture have themselves become ubiquitous. Considering our image-saturated landscape, it is actually quite a natural progression that machines themselves can generate images as an amalgam of what already exists rather than relying on the industrious output of users alone. I shudder that it needs to be said, but none of these images are AI generated. These are earthy, human-made, free-range images. Human made thoughts, too. — Written sometime in 2024, reviewed and published August 22, 2025 by Nick Seitz [^1]: I had to start at the worst ways to write about this project.