Film from the Lynchian Dream Time

The intrepid observer of the human carnivore will know that the entirety of our species can be categorized beneath the roofs of three distinct houses:

Those who love David Lynch and think they understand his creations but are wrong.

Those who hate David Lynch and think they understand his creations but are wrong.

Those who have voluntarily viewed “What Did Jack Do?” in its entirety but are afraid to talk about it.

Authors Note: ‘What Did Jack Do?’ is surprisingly For more on the film, see available on Netflix right now (February 2023).this short review.

Wherever you happen to land at the end of the Lynch-leash there is no denying that David Lynch has forged his own creative biome within a cinematic (and other ventures) catalog that quite possibly is unlike any other we’ve known before or since.

Lynch’s work is, quite literally, Lynchian. His films are a murder chest of hypnotic shadow and color that leave the watcher bathed in a state of uncertain wonder of what they believe they may — or may not — have just witnessed on screen. Weird stories with weird characters (remember Jack?) spliced against a backdrop of even weirder worlds which seem at once familiar and unknown; all served up with massive quantities of pie and a glass of water, sweetheart (for sock preservation).

Not quite horror. Not exactly mystery. Not precisely drama. Wholly Lynchian.

It’s with this preemptive squirt of contextual baste that I share a mild curation of recent photographs which unexpectedly took on a flavor of inherent surrealism.

I could explain them…but I refuse to do so…and always will.

For the technically inclined:

Taken from a roll of Ilford HP5+ 400 and Fomapan 400. Developed in what might well be the best formulation of Caffenol CH (salenated) I’ve ever cooked up for mid-speed stocks. Shot with the Hasselblad 500 C/M with both Zeiss 80mm F/2.8 Planar and 150mm F/4 Sonnar lenses.

All text and images copyright 2023 by Adam Welch unless otherwise indicated