Why Photograph?

“Roaming forgotten places in the darkness to capture the hope of the light allowed me to confront the panic around me and gave me the strength to carry on.”

I became fascinated by Chicago’s nighttime alleys and back streets during the pandemic. I submerged myself in studies of how artificial lights penetrate the darkness of an urban environment. That darkness provided me comfort and cover from the events going on around me. The artificial lights transformed what is bland and ugly in the daylight into a beautiful hidden world, which is visible to those willing to risk the unknown, the shadows. 

During the pandemic, fear and death seemed to permeate everything. Roaming forgotten places in the darkness to capture the hope of the light allowed me to confront the panic around me and gave me the strength to carry on. Ultimately, my work is about confronting fear and finding the beauty, which can emerge from the unknown, the darkness.

Jim Hill

You can follow Jim Hill’s thought provoking photographs on Flickr and Instagram.

You can read other reasons people make photographs here.

Apple Studio Display Not Working Out of the Box

I bought an Apple Studio Display but could not get it to work properly with my 2021 M1 16 inch MacBook Pro. The screen kept flickering. I tried different cables. I even tried a different MacBook but could not get it to stop flickering. The colors also looked washed out. I returned the display to my local Apple Store for a refund. No hassle getting my money back, but I am disappointed.

Putting Putin’s Language in Context

Yale historian Timothy Snyder, writing in his newsletter, explains the significance of Vladimir Putin’s accusations that the Ukrainian government committed “genocide”:

It means, most likely, that he plans to arrest the political and civic leaders of Ukraine, carry out show trials, and have innocent people executed. 

It is grotesque . . . for Putin to accuse the Ukrainian government of being Nazis.  The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelens’kyi, is a Jew with moderate political views.  His grandfather fought the Germans in the Red Army; his grandfather’s family was murdered in the Holocaust.  He was elected with more than seventy percent of the vote by members of a multicultural society who generally define their nation in civic terms.  The far right gets imperceptible percentages of the Ukrainian vote and plays no role in government.

Putin also disrespects those who suffered and perished in the Holocaust.