The Lardner Report

One of the qualities I appreciate in husband Josh is his ability to see things I don’t see. He’s never without a camera, so I get to view what has caught his eye every day. But oddly, when we travel — and shoot together — the differences between what he’s drawn to and what attracts me are striking.

On a recent trip to Portland, while Josh was documenting the dramatic waterfalls and unfathomable beauty of the forests and Japanese gardens, I dashed toward downtown, seeking the most raw, staggeringly decrepit walls and gritty textures I could find. It’s my favorite kind of adventure, and in fact, it’s a legit high.

Here, you’ll see Josh’s beautiful impressions of Portland’s unmatched patches of green and stark contrasts of burned out trees from recent fires. His eye is exquisite.

I guess my photos celebrate something different: the natural abstract art emerging from urban decay. I love finding it buried within the decomposing layers of brick and cement, and in tiny spaces between graffitied messages. Sometimes I think it’s asking to be discovered, shared, and framed.