In a Nook of the Coffee Hosue

The apparition of these faces in the crowd:
Petals on a wet, black bough
-IN A STATION OF THE METRO, Ezra Pound


This image is a compilation of various photos I took of Faerie Coffee yesterday. I wanted to try to capture the sense of my community around, and felt that a single image couldn't quite get the sense of everyone together. This images reminds me of Pound's simple modernist poem, the way the faces of these different men activate the space with life and vivacity. Not quite the ghostly way Pound was looking at the modernism of the people in public transportation, but maybe the post-modern fashion in which these men are forming community and family new ways.

I've been wanting to create a panorama photo for a while. There are lots of places where the images don't exactly fit together (like with David Banyon's coat/ear, or Padme's shoulder), but I think the effect of the social gathering is captured in the casting of faces in a crowd into a single ensemble.

Many of these men have become a sort of new family for me. In fact I wrote an essay for the Pride Foundation about how I have found a family of choice with gay men in Portland. Perhaps I'll post that essay later....

To see the image larger, go to here