The next four days of posts are from a fledgling project which came about as a result of taking an online class, taught by my good friend Don Toothaker. The theme was Sense of Time.

In working on the assignment, I started to think about time passing, rites of passage, and personal transitions. In my current state of mind, going through rites of passage happens alone and in the dark. Darkness has long felt more profound to me than daylight: it hides some things while it amplifies others. It is alone-ness in a way that daylight is not. It is when changes happened and settle in, to be viewed later, perhaps in the night.

All of the images in this short series were shot along one street in Lubbock, 34th Street, which has itself gone through many transformations over the decades. The images are intended to represent human rites of passage projected against the landscape of my own life. They are linked by the overarching theme – and project title – “the darkness got there first.”

Image 1: Welcome to the dream

On those nights when life seems like a dream, everything seems likely to happen. Especially the good parts: they always seem a little more possible.

But maybe those dreams you hold so dear, don’t work. Maybe they are too big. Or not big enough . And maybe you have to let go of them, to free your dream-fragments to fuel something, or someone, else.

Lubbock, Texas
photographed 8.29.2025