One of my New Year’s Resolution has basically turned into a game of Mousetrap where I’m missing a few of the pieces and just trying to drop the net. There are great heaping stacks of Polaroids (I keep them stuffed ten to fifteen in old film boxes) all over my desk in my home studio, but there got to be so many that they annexed the dining room table, which also apparently became home to a stack of unread New Yorkers and holiday mail, plus giant tomes about Elvis and the Marquis de Lafayette. So the goal today—a worthy, achievable goal!—was to just clean the table off. So here’s some of the Polaroids that were on the table!! I can do this! I can clean one thing!
Made while standing in the rain in Fort Payne, Alabama, on the day after Thanksgiving (all photos 2024).
Somewhere in South Mississippi, made while out rambling with Ashleigh & Pat.
Ladies and gentlemen and other folks, the most beautiful tree + sky combo I saw in all of 2024!! For real, no joking. Made in Abiquiú, New Mexico, following Georgia O’Keeffe.
I now see some specks of dust on this scan and it’s going to drive me crazy so let’s just close our eyes and keep going.
Watching the Egg Bowl, Hotel Room in Alabama.
Tucumcari, New Mexico.
Outside Gallup, NM.
So I hope you keep reading in 2025, and thank you all for the encouraging comments, texts, and emails about this newsletter. I work to express a tone of kindness, care, hope, and beauty—indeed, writing this newsletter helps amplify those wonderful things in my life, helps me seek them out. So thank you for that!
Ok, I’m going back to picking up and spinning Gettin’ Around by Dexter Gordon, my newest Sunday morning record. I’ll leave you with one last hope for 2025—
Vicksburg, Mississippi.
“GORJUS” is a dispatch devoted to art and life in the South, held fast with instant film. If you liked what you saw and read, if you maybe felt a twang in your belly while you looked it over, then this is for you, and I reckon we would be friends. Consider sending this letter to a pal who is like us. I’m gorjusjxn on Instagram, and you can see an archive of Polaroids at McCartyPolaroids.