The Wave Sliders journal
ENTRY # 003
Written By: Bolster McKinley
Wave Sliders Journal, Entry [03] as told by Bolster McKinley.
I tend to see the world through a narrow lens. I mean this literally.I am a photographer and spend most of my time looking through a viewfinder, or at the rigid boundaries of a phone or computer screen. I walk through the world unconsciously framing it, boxing it, organizing it into pixels. As a result, I have tricked myself into believing that the world is a simple, predictable place.The sun rises here, the waves will be good there, so and so is wrong about such and such and I am right. Little by little my life has been reduced to 4x5 vertical rectangles, with pleasing color palettes, messages that I already believe, and black and white morality. Obviously, that couldn’t be further from the world I actually inhabit. So how did I get here? Beyond your garden variety anxiety/depression duo, and a healthy peppering of climate despair, the problem, I've decided, is a lack of context.
Context is life. The salty air in my nose, the concrete beneath my feet, the cold dunk of a duck dive, and the loose shit after too many beers...these details make up our lives. We don't celebrate all of them, and for good reason: nobody wants to hear about my bowel movements (despite my best efforts to tell them).In our pursuit for the good details, we often overlook everything else, until even the “good” stuff is void of detail, void of feeling, void of life. The cutting and cropping, spot healing and editing that is now a part of our daily routine, has slowly numbed us into believing that life and art happen in neat rectangles. They don't.
This is mostly a reminder to myself that real life, and real art, happen in the details. And these details are rarely capturable, replicable, publishable or croppable. What we create, what we are able to capture, are mere aftershocks of a perfect moment. Ashen detritus slowly floating to the ground, where they await us, broom in hand.
I often do this, start out with a grand idea, and write myself in circles until I forget what I am really trying to say. I guess that is the beauty and the chaos of a journal entry. It is equal parts lucid epiphanies and non-sequential preaching.
I will end with a resolution. This year, I will strive to observe the details and celebrate the context. I will leave more frames uncropped and share more of the details beyond the borders of the frame. That is the kicker though, hey, because even our vision has limits and boundaries. I guess it is an endless pursuit, the pursuit of context because even as our vision widens, so too do our boundaries.
-Bolster McKinley
What BO is Stoked ON...
In The Surf Community:
Monarch Surfboards
I’m stoked about all the hand-shaped boards that I see in the water and around the community, especially here in Ocean Beach. I see surfing as more of a creative exercise than a competition so it’s cool to see that expression extending beyond the water and people making funky outlines and unique rails, fin setups, colors…all that good shit! Shout out to my buddy John from Monarch Surfboards for always holding me down on fresh hand-shapes. Check him out!
In Thoughts & Quotes:
Whether he is an artist or not, the photographer is a joyous sensualist, for the simple reason that the eye traffics in feelings, not in thoughts.”
-Walker Evans
In The Faro Workshop:
New Board Bags
I am really excited about the new board bags Jack has been cooking up. Made from ocean-found plastics in Indonesia...groundbreaking. I have been to Indonesia, and let me tell you, the trash on the beach is unlike anything you have ever seen. You can't walk barefoot, there are needles and glass and plastic everywhere. A heartbreaking example of the perils of rampant consumerism and offshoring out problems to poorer nations. Anyway, off my soapbox, Faro is putting that "shit" to good use. I fucking love that.
All photos by Bolster McKinley.
Find more work by Bolster at https://www.bomckinley.com/
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