Chad Michael Ward

[Bonus] The Salton Sea

Added 2015-10-07 20:47:11 +0000 UTC

It's 4:30 in the AM.

I've been driving all night towards the border, racing the approaching sunrise like a soldier marching into battle. It's still dark when we arrive, but already the air is thick with heat and the smell of death.

She strips. I watch. She sets up her camera and snaps ambiguous self portraits.
I watch.

She moves like a foreign language. Wrinkles up her face in unconscious pantomimes. Twists her body just so. Another time, another place and I might have kissed her then, if only to share in this quiet intimate moment between her and the lens.

Instead, I watch. And then it's my turn.

I stop watching and start documenting.

Bang. Click. Bang. Click.

Photography is a weapon, the camera my gun.

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My name is Chad Michael Ward, and I'm going to war.

"The Salton Sea" originally appeared on Chase Lisbon's short-lived LATE NIGHT FEELINGS blog in 2010.