Sunshine and Olly

by Jonathan Blaustein

Hi Everybody.

How’s it going?

I know my production here has lagged, but thankfully it’s not for any nefarious reason. (Though I have had a major formatting issue with WordPress, which has made posting much less fun.)

It’s summer, which slows everything down, and I’m happy to report I’m actually making photographs now, almost every day.

The urge to force it, which I wrote about a month ago, has proven fruitful, and I’m getting my creativity needs met on the regular, making visual art again.

That said, I didn’t build up the blog all spring just to abandon it to lazy days.

No sir.

During that push, I also rejuvenated the photography portion of Sunshine and Olly by reviving my Friday photo column.

As today’s title suggests, that’s where we’re going. It’s for a similar reason as the last run of photo columns, in that I saw something organically, and wanted to share it.

In this case, an artist I know from Dallas, whom I profiled twice in my column at A Photo Editor, has been showing the coolest night photos on IG the past few months.

Titled sometimes i can’t sleep.



I was just telling someone yesterday that my IG feed is nearly ceaseless in its promotion of martial arts and fitness videos.

So. Many. Videos.

I barely see photographs, (even though I follow a million photographers,) but somehow, Laidric Stevenson’s night pictures, in Texas, made it through the algorithm’s very tight set of standards. (Yes, I was originally going to write sphincter, but it seemed too gross.)

These pictures are not new.

Doesn’t matter.


As artists, knowing when to let things sit, sometimes for years, is a valuable skill.

Adding time to the way we receive photographs, (allowing for culture to age,) is a battle tested way of juicing the flavor.

Like photo MSG.

According to his statement, (which is super-well-written, IMO,) back in the last decade, the only time of day Laidric could definitely get to make photographs, (between a young child and two jobs,) was to go out at night.

And lest you think these pictures are easy, they’re all made on film.

With big cameras.

This is the opposite of blazing away and letting the digital sensor do the work.

I’m going to give you a nice quote from Laidric, to enhance your understanding of his art, and then we’ll land the plane with a series of his pictures.

Beyond that, I’ll be back next week. 


Laidric wrote:

“While counting down the minutes plus exposure, I can’t help but notice things like the smell of the nighttime air.

It smells cleaner somehow without all the traffic around, even though I’m still in the city. There’s also the way the night turns down the volume of life.

I know it may not be like this elsewhere in the city, so I try to find these isolated pockets to set up my camera in peace.

As photographers, sometimes we have to answer to those who don’t understand what we’re doing and why.

‘What are you doing?’ 
‘Why are you taking pictures?’ 
‘What are you taking pictures of?’ 
‘Why are you taking pictures of that?’

Sometimes, we might not even know why. The photographs are us searching for those answers.

All i know is some nights, i can’t sleep.”