THE CALL OF THE QUOTIDIAN

1.

Among the definitions of the quotidian, which I think of as meaning commonplace or ordinary, is this: “something that returns or is expected every day.” Things that return or repeat become almost invisible – we see them so many times we stop paying attention. But if you choose to look, the quotidian has a beauty of its own.

What makes ordinary things so appealing? It must be in part because familiarity creates comfort. We feel secure knowing something will be the same the next time we encounter it. That idea reminds me of Bowlby and Ainsworth’s work on attachment theory, which laid the groundwork for new concepts in developmental psychology. You may remember that through observing mothers and infants, Mary Ainsworth theorized that having a reliable, secure person to return to after exploring the world is critical for a person’s ability to regulate their emotions. Collaborating with Ainsworth, John Bowlby published a now classic book, ‘Attachment and Loss’ in 1969, and decades later, attachment theory entered the mainstream. Maybe you’ve seen a quiz that determines your “attachment style” and what it means for your love life pop up on your social media.

As important as security is, I tend to enjoy things that break up routines. Exploring new places and ideas is exhilarating. Still, routines and familiar things have their place. Everyday objects evoke a particular kind of humble beauty, especially if we pay close attention. In the arts, painting has a long tradition of elevating the commonplace. Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s paintings of peasants, Morandi’s still lifes and Edward Hopper’s corner drugstores are familiar examples. Photographers have explored the aesthetics of the quotidian, too. Dorothea Lange, William Eggleston, Jan Groover, and many others focused on everyday scenes and objects.

But the funny thing about photographing the quotidian is that photographers have a tendency to look for the unexpected rather than the ordinary. Even when we photograph ordinary subjects (or perhaps especially then) we often emphasize something that looks slightly off, a quirk that will hold the viewer’s attention. An ordinary street corner is seen suffused with an eerie light, a chain link fence is blurred except for one link, or the quotidian ingredients of a typical diner breakfast are arranged to fit together like a puzzle.

It’s ordinary until it isn’t.

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2.

When we were in Vancouver last month, a friend took us on a neighborhood tour that included a vast construction site. At the edge of the work area, we stumbled across a chaotic pile of discarded materials and equipment. It was the essence of the quotidian. There were coils of rebar, a length of cable, rusty auger parts, a dumpster…do your eyes light up just imagining those objects? Ours did. To us, those prosaic objects told stories about real work, work that we rely on every day but seldom think about. Just the scale of construction can be very impressive. Building materials and tools often have dynamic shapes and intriguing patterns or textures. The rough world of construction can seem exciting to folks like us who spend a fair amount of time at computers or in offices.

So what did we do when we saw that jumble of discarded construction materials? We photographed it.

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3.
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6.
7.

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After we finished admiring the rust goldmine we walked back uphill and came to a street graced with “H-frames.” H-frames are power pole constructions that have been in place in Vancouver for up to 80 years – what I might call Vancouver Vernacular. They’re the kind of quotidian sights that locals usually take for granted but to me, they were an opportunity to see lines and negative space dance an intricate tango over my head. Maybe a square dance is a better metaphor! Even the lamposts and construction cranes got into the act, marking out precise spatial alignments against an opaque sky and twirling pirouettes in the glassy reflections of an office building.

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8.
9.
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11.

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Another recent quotidian find is a building I chanced upon in my own backyard. I was walking down a residential street near the shoreline. I’d never been on that street before. Below street level, jutting out over the water was an old wooden building and pier. I figured it had been a fish processing plant – fishing and crabbing have always been important industries here. It looked deserted and was clearly rundown. There was no way to climb down to it but using my phone, I followed a series of right and left turns that took me to a rough, dirt road that terminated at the building’s side. A truck parked nearby gave the impression that the structure was still in use. In declining light, I made a few photos and promised myself I’d be back.

When I got home I googled the address. It turns out that an enterprising diver named Chris Sparks is using part of the old cannery for his business, Wildcatch Seafood Products. He and other divers collect sea urchins and sea cucumbers around the San Juan Islands at depths of 20-80 feet underwater (6-24m). The delicacies are sold to the Japanese market overseas and sushi restaurants in Seattle. He also sells fresh-caught Dungeness crab when it’s in season. He operates out of the 98-year-old “red cannery” and hopes to renovate it and expand the business. It’s one of only two canneries left standing on the island so I hope he can make a go of it.

That kind of quotidian makes me happy.

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12.
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14.

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This entry was posted in Further Afield (travel), photography, urban, writing and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

62 comments

  4. A very interesting essay to accompany a very interesting photo album, the objects and scenes may be ordinary but some extraordinary shots, you’ve definitely got the knack of detecting the unexpected. That 2nd one (a brush for a concrete power trowel or street cleaner?) has got such a great mad scientist vibe, looks like it ready to give off electric sparks. And the rebar cage w/boulder and #8 looking up at all those crisscrossing wire also look like some sort of experiments ready to happen. The augur has a different vibe to it, more of brutal, alien sandworm thing going on. All very cool.

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      • Your associations are always very interesting. A rune, wacky science experiments, alien sandworms…I don’t think I want to be in your brain when you’re dreaming, Robert. 😉 Seriously, it’s cool that your imagination is fired by these images. You’re basically right about that huge brush – it’s the thing used to texture concrete after it’s poured. Cool, right? And that giant auger was really cool. I was glad we could get so close to these things – most of the site is fenced off. My New York self kept thinking someone was going to come and yell at us but no, we were in Canada! 😉 Thanks for your comment.

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    • Yes, things are always changing. That’s why I was happy to read that someone wants to keep the old building. It’s sad when all the evidence of the past is torn down. There was a very old place that worked with brass here in my town and it got torn down last year. Someone said the owner plans to rebuild it in a different place – I hope so. They took everything away in big pieces so they want to try to save it. Thanks for stopping by – have a good weekend!

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      • Not far away from my home village they rebulit the walls af a cloister in the forest, at least the floor plan. The work has been done mainly by volunteers.

        The whole can also apply to the last resistance 45. Many 16-year-olds found her grave. I visit the memorial regularly.

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    • I’ll admit that I thought the first two were a pretty nice way to open. I’m glad you approve! 🙂 Good idea for the last photo – thanks for stopping by and enjoy your weekend up there in Webster, where….

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  7. Love everything about this, Lynn. Great word, quotidian, and your narrative about seeing what I often call the “extraordinary everyday”, well describes subjects that are overlooked and ones that can be stunning. Your images of the construction site, especially #2 and #6 are beautiful. I never saw those unusual telephone poles in Vancouver- very photogenic.
    Hope the cannery makes it! Enjoyable post, thanks. 🤗

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    • Thank you! The text went through the usual tortured batch of multiple changes, oh well. #2 is fun, ins’t it? It’s the thing that puts texture on poured concrete – now you see it, right? 🙂 And I called #6 bolts but Joe corrected me – they’re pieces that go on the huge auger in #5. Guy stuff. 😉 I was introduced to H-frames by Penny, the blogger I mentioned in a previous post, so thank her.
      Yes, most of the other old buildings are long gone and this one is obviously in need of TLC. I am glad we still have some grit around here.

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  8. You found beauty in “jumble and discarded parts” which made me think of life!! Sometimes our own journey is a jumble and discarded parts that challenge us but finding joy through the jumble and valuing the love and aloha from those around us gives us the strength we need to see the beauty in the jumble. You are “right on” target!! Thank you for the strength and the stretch!!

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    • I can always count on you for a warm, human, perspective. What a jumble of discarded parts my life has been, at least at certain times. But it’s coming together. 😉 Thanks for the love and aloha, keep it coming!

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  9. As I prepare for a photography show that I’m titling “Looking at the Overlooked,” your timing for this blog post couldn’t be better. Your photographs—right up my alley—are wonderful. And I truly appreciate your narrative. May I borrow some of it (with attribution) for my artist talk? I’m especially intrigued by your observation, which I share but have never put into words so well: “It’s ordinary until it isn’t.” When we point at something, we make it special. The only way I see out of this weird contradiction is an invitation to, in a sense, pay it forward. We can urge our viewers to notice for themselves what is usually taken for granted but perhaps should or need not be. There is, as you show, joy in paying that kind of attention—and joy in seeing it paid. Thanks as always for your images and story.

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      • Great title, Linda, and I sure wish I could be there at the opening. The narrative went through many changes, as mine always do, so it’s nice to hear you could actually use some of it. And as I said above, It’s Joe’s quote – the first time he read the text, that’s what he said so I appropriated it.
        It IS a weird contradiction, right? Your suggestion that people look for themselves is just perfect – it’s exactly where one should go with all this, I think. It’s why we show these images, isn’t it? To encourage others to see the world with new eyes, to appreciate, to pay attention. Thank you for a memorable comment and good luck getting the show together.

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    • Very good points, Geoff, thank you for that wider perspective! There’s so much input these days that it can be hard to see things with fresh eyes. I hope you have a wonderful weekend.

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  12. I love these shots. making the everyday look special, indeed.

    I think the need to have security we can return to is bound up with having, or putting down, roots. Somewhere to return to after forays out to explore. And that exploring is every bit as important as those roots.

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    • Putting down roots does bring a valuable sense of security – when I think of all the refugees and others who aren’t able to do that, I feel so badly for them. It’s so impossibly tough for so many people. But people somehow manage, for the most part. I’m lucky to be in a beautiful place, secure at the moment, but who knows what’s ahead?
      Thanks for your comment, Mick, and I’m very pleased that you enjoyed the photos.

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  13. I love me a construction site. And wires. And rusty metal. Maybe because my dad was an outdoor electrician (think traffic or street lights and the like) who had an “industrial lot” where he stored his (some old and rusty) various and sundry equipment. Or maybe I like these objects in spite of that. In any case, your post made me smile.

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    • Me too, I just don’t see this “stuff” all that often so I don’t show it very often. Wow, your Dad’s lot must have been so exciting to see!
      I suppose our attraction to things like this comes from a number of different places – I wandered through half-built houses on weekends as a child because new homes were bring constructed near our house. The smell of lumber, and the look of a construction site – I still love it! Thanks for your comment!

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  15. Marvellous post, Lynn! Thought provoking prose and some great images of the everyday (albeit much of it rusty!) As you say, it’s ordinary until it isn’t… I love those images of the old cannery…thesort of place I love too come across

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  17. Great topic! Your photos are fantastic!
    Yes, the unexpected seems to hide in the quotidian! We hurry through the day and don’t see it. That’s why waiting isn’t boring any longer for me : I know, there will be something worth looking at or listening to, outside or insde myself.
    And here in your posts for sure ! Cheerio, Petra

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  18. Everything has its beauty and aesthetics, but for me, personally, it is less stimulating in this type of environment. But it exists, without any doubt. It’s a bit like wandering around the city in search of details that, positively or negatively, touch our aesthetic sense.
    I like your post also because it is different from most. And of the images, I particularly like 10 and 11.
    I wish you a good sunday!

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    • Dulce, I appreciate your honest opinion. Some people prefer this type of subject matter to nature, some don’t. Of course, we can find beauty anywhere but for each of us, some places are easier than others. Obviously, nature is what I like best but these subjects are a nice change. I think #10 & 11 have a clean, graphic look that is similar to your style so I love that you chose those two. You will appreciate the busy day I had (Saturday) – a field trip in a preserve to observe lichens and mosses with an expert in the morning, then a zoom training to review how a small group of volunteers will be gathering data from 3 cameras in a rookery where hundreds of herons nest. They are like your Gray herons – big ones. 🙂 We will watch them come back to their nests and raise their young. It should be exciting. 🙂

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  19. I find rust fascinating to photograph and that old cannery is especially appealing. I think many of us learned to find photo opportunities in the quotidian during the pandemic, when we couldn’t wander far from home and started to look more closely at the places we passed on our daily walks.

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    • I bet you’re right, Sarah. I suppose people will be studying all the changes that came out of that experience for years to come. It was so surprising to come upon that huge building but unless you’re in a boat or you walk down a certain dead-end, residential street, you can’t see it. We’re hoping to buy crab from them when it’s in season.

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  20. As a tinkerer I have discovered you can take the ordinary and make it extraordinary with just a little imagination and some basic tools. Very nice post. Thank you!

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  21. Love love love this! All of it. Your eye, the way you’ve made the quotidian interesting is fabulous. There are so many images in this post that were wow moments for me.
    As for Vancouver’s h-frames – I’ve never seen them. Or perhaps I should say I’ve never “seen” them.
    Alison

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    • It’s great to hear you’re a fan of this kind of thing, too. That construction project, in case you wondered, is the transportation project near Emily Carr University. You must have walked by H-frames many times and I think they’re mostly in alleys but I’m not sure. Anyway, I like them – I like seeing a maze of wires and things, even though from one point of view it’s just more urban clutter. Thanks for the thumbs up!

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    • Thank you, Howard, working with those subjects was a nice change from what I do most days. I’m very happy wandering around in a beautiful landscape but it’s refreshing to focus on the gritty side of urban life. 🙂

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  24. Lovely! I suppose my equivalent is finding something new, or a new point of view along my well-trodden river path by my home. If I take my time there’s always interesting photos to be had, but if I wander out and walk quickly there and back again, I feel uninspired to shoot.
    It’s obvious you lingered and looked at the construction site from many angles and found the beauty. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and stunning ‘everyday’ images with us!

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    • You’re right, taking one’s time makes a big difference, as does being alone. I’ve come to accept that walking quickly for exercise is just as valuable as walking slowly and getting absorbed in one’s surroundings. Same with walking and talking with friends. Each one is important, right? Thanks for stopping by – I hope you’re going to get some of that sunshine today!

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      • We’ve got a bit of sun right now, and I witnessed the stunning moonrise this morning. I have a couple terrible photos of it that capture the moment for me, at least. 🙂
        I completely agree that each type of walking is valuable in its own way. How fortunate we are to have the peace and leisure to contemplate such things, and of course to do them. Enjoy the coming springtime!

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  25. I love the originality of these photos- particularly the rust ones, which seem to shimmer like gold. I had never heard the term ‘quotidian’ before, but I definitely relate to the appeal and comfort of it 😊

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    • It’s gratifying to read comments like yours – I’m really happy to introduce a new word and convey some excitement over things that we don’t normally get excited about. Thanks so much for commenting, Laura!

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  26. We both love nature, but this comes very close, right?! Besides contrast makes life much more interesting. You wrote it. I love things like these and what you made of them in your pictures. Some of these items may be “ordinary”, but then we don’t see them every day. So to me it is a mixture of ordinary things and rarities at the same time. Scrap is inviting like the little oddities from the forest floor 🙂 Very creative photos and I like all of them. #2 is my favourite here. The next part, the H-frames, are wonderful. I love such kind of structures and the way you chose the details. 11 is a great shot! Finally the old cannery. Isn’t it nice to make such kind of findings in your surroundings? How exciting that it is so near to you and I am happy to hear that it is still used. I hope it stays there for a long long time. A very nice post Lynn and I like your little divergency to psychology here 🙂

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    • It’s true, some of these things aren’t ordinary at all in our world. But they’re not valued for their aesthetic appeal – maybe I should have said that. I like your comparison of scrap metal with little oddities on the forest floor – perfect! Hmmm, I wonder if a post could be made pairing those two subjects. #11 is probably something you could see in Hannover. Thanks for your thoughts! It’s always nice having a conversation across land and water with you. 🙂

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