58.6

Crime is on my mind…funny, because my early concept for my recent shoot was a riff on thieves, not sure what that would result in, but that was my impulse. Perhaps it was the rash of crimes in my neighborhood of late, which has been preying on my mind a little too much. Last night out home alarm went off and the police were summoned at 3am. This is too close to home, and too much to shrug off. The elements of discord, the lesser humans, robbing not just homes but also peace of mind, are here, have always been, but until now, have been an abstract to intellectualize and theorize about. Now, for me, these faceless destroyers are all too real.

Will it occur again? I don't know. But this event will ride in my psychic passenger seat for quite awhile, and perhaps never fully leave again. Such are the roots of this malignancy in our species, this constant threat that we all have in the back of our minds.

I stayed up most of the night, and decided today to toy with some imagery, and this came of it. It is pretty much in line with my concerns on home crime.

For the title, I found this quote from Horace Mann…

When a man, before innocent, commits crime, he passes, by a sudden transition, into a new world. The significance of all objects around him is changed; the laws of association in his own mind are changed; a viper is born in his breast which stings and goads him. Sounds that he never heard before ring in his ears; a violated conscience turns avenger and scourger;--the foe is within him. Were it merely an external enemy, assaulting the criminal from without, perhaps he might be fled from, resisted, bribed, or would at last remit his inflictions through very weariness of tormenting. But not so with the consciousness of wrong.... It will not sleep, nor tire, nor relent.

Model: Ed Barron