IrwinFoto

A gallery of photos by Mike Irwin

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  • Vases

    Vases | Wilmington, NC | 2016

    The waitress said the flower delivery was late that morning, so she hadn’t put the bud vases on the tables. Instead, she’d arranged them on a shelf in a dim corner behind the cash register. I noticed that every time she passed the shelf that she’d pause to adjust the vases’ positions, moving one to the edge, another to the back row, making sure they all lined up just right. She blew dust off one vase as I made my way past her to the hallway for the men’s room. A few steps down the hall a doorway opened to the kitchen where, on a stainless steel counter, stood a huge spray of (more…)

  • Chair

    Chair | Seattle, WA | 2016

    Viewing objects from odd angles reveals details that the eye-brain partnership might initially ignore. Sure, the eye accurately records the shape and construction of, say, an Adirondack chair. But seeking efficiency, the brain provides a rough sketch using points of dimension and contour, and then hastily fills in the rest. “I’ll be darned,” says the brain. “It’s a chair.” Seeing the same chair upside down forces the brain to (more…)

  • Sign

    Sign | East Wenatchee, WA | 2016

    “Jesus was a man for simple people. He didn’t make his messages incredibly complex. If you were a person that (more…)

  • Ominous

    Ominous | East Wenatchee, WA | 2015

    Every so often I can sense the day teetering on the cusp of change. You know that feeling, right? Dogs are restless, people are edgy, clouds scud low. Something is about to happen, but I don’t know what. Usually it’s just a sudden shift in weather — downpour, blizzard, lightning storm — but sometimes (more…)

  • Aquarium

    Aquarium | Central Arkansas | 2015

    I always try to find characteristics shared between humans and other species. Dogs express joy; cats exude self-centeredness; parrots maintain a nervous chattiness. But fish? They’re harder to categorize. Sure, they like to swim and eat (we do, too). But unlike us, they don’t emote. Or that’s what I thought until I stared eye-to-eye with Gloomy Gus (in photo). Immediately, I could sense an overwhelming disgust. But not with his meager sprinkling of food, or his watery imprisonment, or the dismal state of the world. No. Instead, he was disgusted with adult humans, and with me in particular. He’d look at me and roll his eyes in a very exaggerated fashion. Extremely judgmental. Then he’d glide over to a group of fifth graders and gleefully perform flips and blow bubbles. Then he’d return to me and roll his eyes in distaste. His behavior convinced me that fish do indeed share a characteristic with humans — cheeky rudeness.

  • Tracks

    Tracks | Wenatchee, WA | 2016

    Yesterday’s temperature in Eastern Washington hovered at around 100 degrees with 105 predicted for today. So an image from January 2016 of snow — even if it was just a skiff — seemed … well, hopeful. Such a dusting can transform black asphalt into the perfect (more…)

  • Warehouse Wall

    Warehouse Wall | Quincy, WA | 2016

    We live in fruit country, where gazillions of cherries, apples, peaches, pears and grapes (along with potatoes) are processed and stored in enormous warehouse-like buildings. I’m talking tens, maybe hundreds, of millions of square feet of covered space in a five-county area. Driving past one of these climate- controlled structures always reminds me of (more…)

  • River Glow

    River Glow | Vantage, WA | 2016

    It’s not mystical. The glow from the bottom of the Columbia River is a trick of light — reflection off a sandy bottom or an underwater cliff angled just right. But I’ve visited this spot in all seasons, and even on cloudy days there’s an intriguing (more…)

  • Zebra Truck

    (Today marks half a year of posting daily photos from my archive — 183 so far. Many thanks for following this blog.)

    Zebra Truck | Wenatchee, WA | 2016

    A slatted fence and setting sun were all that was needed to transform the white truck into a (sort of) savanna equine. At least while it was parked in that particular spot. The short-lived spectacle reminded me (more…)

  • Wrinkle

    Wrinkle | Kingwood, TX | 2016

    I sat a long time in my sister’s back yard to stare at the slide bolted to the family swing set. Its white fiberglass remained aglow well past dusk, as if the slide had soaked up the sun to light up the evening. The next day at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts we viewed a surreal painting that portrayed a similar wrinkle (more…)