IrwinFoto

A gallery of photos by Mike Irwin

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  • Plywood

    Plywood | East Wenatchee, WA | 2018

    The first face Bill noticed was on an elevator at work. Two push-buttons for eyes, a third for a nose, and an emergency keyhole for a mouth, round and surprised. Afterwards, he saw faces everywhere. On cars (headlights, smiling grills). At breakfast (fried eggs, bacon smirks). On buildings (window eyes, ledge mouths). It startled him at first, these onlookers at every turn. But soon he was fascinated by their variety and detail. A grumpy alien on plywood. An alert collie on wet shower tiles. A happy boy on a taxi’s frayed upholstery. “What’s it all mean?” he wondered. One morning over coffee, Bill looked up to discover (more…)

  • Birds on Wire

    Birds on Wire | East Wenatchee, WA | 2018

    I’m back with my buddies, sitting on this wobbly wire and waiting for Millie to sprinkle some seeds. The small ones are tasteless and the big ones hard to crack. But it’s free food, right? Plus, Millie would be so disappointed if we didn’t gobble it up. She’s sweet, and definitely reliable, but I crave more variety. I always loved it when we flocked down to Porter’s Pond to forage for berries and bugs. Peck under a log and the grubs would tumble out, more than we could ever eat. And the worms! Don’t get me started. I miss the (more…)

  • Space

    Space | East Wenatchee, WA | 2018

    The moon reminds us at a glance that we’re on a rock flying through space. Veiled by clouds, floating on a star field, Luna presents a dramatic mirroring of our own situation as Cosmic Travelers. She nudges us to remember that (more…)

  • Arbor

    Arbor | Chelan Falls, WA | 2019

    One complex biological system (a big mess of vines) provides perches for a batch of even more complex systems (flitting birds) while being observed by one of the most complex systems in the universe (shucks, that’s me). Trillions of specialized cells grouped into three very different organisms all interacting on (more…)

  • Tent

    Tent | Omak, WA | 2017

    Circus sideshows have nearly disappeared. But 55 years ago, a tent filled with oddities — “You Won’t Believe Your Eyes!” — sprouted at least once a year in our small southern town. On one occasion, a hulking canopy housed the (supposedly) mummified corpse of exotic dancer Marie O’Day. She’d been murdered and her body tossed into — and preserved by — the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The barker claimed her hair and fingernails still grew and required frequent clipping. Freaky, for sure. But what fascinated me most was (more…)

  • Cultivation

    Cultivation | Badger Mountain, WA | 2017

    “Let us not forget that cultivation of the earth is the most important labor of man. When tillage begins, (more…)

  • Mannequins

    Mannequins | Kennewick, WA | 2016

    Service at a local retailer is so awful that I wonder if the staff has been trained to see customers only as faceless, walking wallets. These employees offer no “hello,” no eye contact, no chit-chat, no “thank you.” It makes me yearn for self-checkout or, even better, a robot cashier. The upside? Clerks with lousy people skills can inspire us to (more…)

  • Warehouses

    Warehouses | Wenatchee, WA | 2018

    (This looks like a line drawing, but it really is a photo of a pole, some warehouses and a foothill.)

    The search for order in a chaotic world is one of photography’s great gifts. Not the resulting image, mind you, but the actual pursuit of balance, patterns and associations. It’s mentally absorbing, like hunting for sand dollars on a beach, and done right allows us to move through life with a calculating eye. All those angles, lines and layers shift constantly until (more…)

  • Ascend

    Ascend | Bellevue, WA | 2017

    Before climbing the huge antenna’s stairs, Gretchen gathered her thoughts on her marital mess. True, her husband hadn’t romanced his secretary or stayed out drunk all night or lost the house in a poker game. But she felt cheated and scorned nonetheless as his search for “alien chatter” — it sounded like something from a cartoon — consumed his time and attention. “It’s ridiculous,” she spat, remembering his warning that deep-space radio waves could be dangerous, could short-circuit a person’s brain, could allow a mental takeover by (more…)

  • Snow Poodle

    Snow Poodle | Twisp, WA | 2017

    What’s to sniff in a frozen landscape? Our dog traces ghost scents left days before by wandering wildlife. Deer, coyotes, ravens, moles and stray cats have all written travel tales across the crunchy crust. And, as pooch owners know, every muzzle loves a good story. My own inhalations detect hints of (more…)