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sun/fish
Fish and a wedge of sun in a street market in Palermo.
When I was a kid, my family took several long road trips to Mexico; we used a Sanborn’s guidebook that noted all the things of interest along the way. And if there was a note about a town (even if it was off our route) that was having a market on the day we’d be there, my dad would turn off the highway for a visit. It was always interesting to see all the things that were for sale, from an entire dead-but-not-butchered-pig, to a few meters of embroidery thread wrapped around a piece of cardboard, to plastic shoes, to jewel-toned soft drinks in glass bottles, to books.
It seemed like the details of our visits to Mexican markets had been lost in my memory. But only a few steps into their Sicilian cousins those memories came back; I was once again a shy blonde kid on the cusp of being grown seeing things that felt mysterious and enticing.
Palermo, Sicily
photographed 1.17.2025
presentation
The cathedral is one of the greatest still-standing examples of Norman architecture; here’s a statue of King William II of Sicily offering a model of the cathedral to the Virgin Mary. The sand color of the statue and the texture of the stone will forever make me think about this as a sand sculpture (just one more example of how my brain works). The building was constructed between 1172 and 1185, which is an astonishingly fast pace for a building of its size and detailing. (Coincidently, that is faster than the time it took the City of Lubock and the Texas Department of Transportation to reconstruct approximately two miles of 19th Street.)
Duomo di Monreale
Monreale, Sicily
photographed 1.30.2025
necklace man
A tiny room off the nave and sanctuary had beautiful marble sculptures that held great meaning. Some people found great religious significance in them; I found photographic solace there.
Capella del Crocifisso – Duomo di Monreale
Monreale, Sicily
photographed 1.30.2025
the way the light hits
One year ago, I was in Sicily on a photography trip. I was with my friends and we had the best time enjoying the culture, the education, the food, the photography, and our time together. I still think about it almost every day. (Because I am comfortable living a year in the past, I guess?)
The late afternoon light at the cloisters beside the cathedral in Monreale was beautiful, bringing out the reds and oranges in the old stone. Look at the tops of those columns: every one is different.
Also, speaking of reds and oranges, I am at least 100% certain that when we returned to Palermo later that night, we had a few Aperol spritzes – each one served with a slice of an in-season Sicilian orange.
Chiostro dei Benedettini
Monreale, Sicily
photographed 1.30.2025
road ends
I have a book called Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours*. It was published in 1821, and written by Patrick Syme, who’s described as a flower-painter, which sounds like a pretty good job. If you like flowers. And can paint. And don’t need, you know, money or anything.
It snowed the other day so I went out to get some photos. The thing I noticed mostly was how much orange will stand out in a mostly-monochromatic field of colors; almost all of the photos have a spot of orange in them.
And this is where the book and the photos intersect: just for fun, I’m going to match the various oranges that I photographed with descriptions from the book.
This one seems to be most similar to Colour 77 – Buff Orange. The book says buff orange is sienna yellow, with a little Dutch Orange, and adds that is it similar to the “Streak from the Eye of the King Fisher.”
the snow day series
Lubbock, Texas
photographed 1.24.2026
*The full title is Werner’s Nomenclature of Colours, with additions, arranged so as to render it highly useful to the ARTS AND SCIENCES, particularly Zoology, Botany, Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Morbid Anatomy, annexed to which are examples selected from well-known objects in the ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, AND MINERAL KINGDOMS. Title just rolls right off your tongue. Eventually.
One Day | One Image 