Thoughts Jury Rigged Jon Hillenbrand, November 9, 2010October 17, 2019 A while ago, I was requested to serve my country in one of those most boringly intimidating ways possible…jury duty. This was my first time being called up and I have to say that I was nervous about it in the way that one is nervous about failing the written…
Photography Adaptive Preference Formation Jon Hillenbrand, November 7, 2010October 17, 2019 You can’t reach the grapes so they are probably not ripe anyway, right? This attitude is known as Adaptive Preference Formation. It’s what we do, as humans, to justify our failures. The other day, I had to do a photo shoot where I KNEW that most of the photos were never…
Photography The Mystery of the Exploding Girl Jon Hillenbrand, October 24, 2010October 17, 2019 I can’t think of anything to write about tonight so I am just going to start writing and see if anything comes out of my head in opposition to my writer’s block. Maybe I should simply describe the above photo. I took this shot back in 2005. It was a…
Poetry I remember this Jon Hillenbrand, October 21, 2010December 30, 2015 You’ll know if this makes sense to you: “And it starts, sometime around midnight. Or at least that’s when you lose yourself for a minute or two. As you stand, under the bar lights. And the band plays some song about forgetting yourself for a while. And the piano’s this…
Thoughts Falling for you Jon Hillenbrand, October 19, 2010October 17, 2019 AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH! How many of you read that and thought, “He’s saying, ‘ahhh,’ like he’s satisfied with something…oh wait, the r’s and g’s and more h’s to indicate that he’s frustrated or angry. Here we go again. (roll eyes now)” So, massive apology to the world for my basic mood lately. I’ve…
Poetry Potential Jon Hillenbrand, October 15, 2010May 10, 2013 The ink drops to the page, ridged blackness like an inverted star its potential swimming within the fluid. I stab it with my finger and drag out its life into a box within which I fill everything that fills me. A lifetime of fear and happiness, love lost and gained,…
Photography All these things that I’ve done Jon Hillenbrand, October 14, 2010October 17, 2019 Tomorrow is my birthday. Thirty-six. Alla, the girl who cuts my hair, says I’m just a baby though an increasing percentage of the clipped hair falling from her scissors is silver. She’s getting married for the second time now at forty-five and I’ve never seen her happier. She insists that…
Poetry Rosary of thought unread aloud Jon Hillenbrand, October 6, 2010May 10, 2013 It’s a rosary of thought, it’s over and over, and it runs through my head from bead to bead. It doesn’t matter. Like a fight with myself. You know, eventually, I’m going to win. So I wait for the victory. I close my eyes and wait for the victory to…
Poetry Ten Minute Lunch Jon Hillenbrand, October 5, 2010December 30, 2015 Today I spent ten minutes eating my lunch on the rickety wire furniture adrift in the shadow of a building. These autumn days chill shadowed areas to blue, but I was not shivering because of the cold and the shadow was cast not by the sun, but by the presence of my former love inside….
Photography Metrics Jon Hillenbrand, October 2, 2010October 17, 2019 Some people I work with don’t care about anything other than successful numbers. As someone involved in creating artwork for a living, it’s difficult to mesh with that metrics-based world. But I do keep track of almost everything I do at work so just for fun, here are some of…
Photography Thoughts on Thoughts Jon Hillenbrand, September 29, 2010October 17, 2019 I am Captain Insomnia. My super power is the ability to stay awake forever. Sometimes I just can’t get my brain to shut the hell up. It’s probably clinical and can be treated with a pill which will destroy other parts of my life. Fuck, anything I write seems self-servingly…
Photography Et maintenant au Congo Jon Hillenbrand, August 30, 2010October 17, 2019 Often when I am photographing wealthy socialites partying or buying art on the north shore of Chicago, I think of a friend of mine, Amy Ernst, who is in the Congo right now taking amazing photos of interesting people. But she’s not there to take photos, she’s doing her part…
Photography Cracking Open the Omniverse Jon Hillenbrand, August 24, 2010October 17, 2019 Today I experienced a cranial disaster resulting from a singularity in all space and time. It all started way back when my parents decided not to have any more children after the birth of my older sister Sarah. Sixteen months later, I was a newborn being carried around the hospital by…
Thoughts The Killers of Juarez Jon Hillenbrand, August 23, 2010October 17, 2019 One of the greatest crimes of the favored is apathy to the plight of the unfortunate. Many Americans feel this to be true and for a few moments each year, they gather behind the news of the day and text money to a cause. They allow others to work out…
Poetry Life Should Be Delicious Jon Hillenbrand, August 18, 2010December 30, 2015 I woke up with vomit in my mouth. The kind of dirty stink that makes you run to a cup of anything to change the experience. All night I had been bent at the waist, feeling my body implode, stopped only by the frozen stomach muscles that I hadn’t felt…