24 thoughts on “#WordlessWednesday: A Midnight Murder Mystery”

    1. Thank you, Robbie. The idea of showing a corpse, even a virtual one, seemed too macabre and distracting. The idea is that forcing people to live in homelessness is social murder, so the two people in the photo are both victims of the same kind of crime.

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  2. I am not even looking at the details, as I am struck by the beautiful warm colours you have used. Now let me go back and get a closer look.

    That is one murder mystery to solve. Isn’t it?
    It’s sad but there is something very appealing about the colours that brings a sense of hope to the consequence of events.

    Just my interpretation. Forgive me if I’m wrong.

    Have a restful weekend Rob.

    P.S: And I’d love some feedback on my logo if you can.

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    1. That’s a wonderful observation, Natasha. The warm color makes the danger seem inviting. In San Francisco the streetlights cast a warm glow through the fog at night, at least the more dimply lit lights in the 1980’s. This scene is based on memories of that time, which may be why I chose warm colors. Thank you for that thought provoking comment.

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  3. Looking at the two covers, is it a leg and a foot I can see sticking out of the dark red one, Rob? Such a horrible place to have left this world. The title of this post had me looking for clues as to what had happened. I was wondering if the black bin bag next to the orange cover was full of somebodies life, or full of trash.

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    1. Interesting you ask about how such a thing can happen because there is a second image that amplifies the background and clues in this one. In the 1980s, going into the Tenderloin in San Francisco was to invite the possibility of violence. I need to write the story of when I discovered someone dead in the middle of a crowd. He had been dead for hours, and no one noticed. I didn’t realize how much of that memory found its way into this image until I posted it, and people began to leave comments. Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment, Hugh.

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    1. That’s interesting, Jan.

      You may be seeing how I felt when I started staging these images in late February when the pandemic was starting.

      The pandemic and threat of homelessness reminded me of the sights I saw in the 1980s, during the AIDS epidemic, so I started to stage those memories.

      I wrote about those feelings as I was staging this first set of photos.

      The writing is draft and a bit raw:

      “When you score from a whore, you never pretend
      she’s anything more.
      Screw her, pay her, and leave her to die.
      This is the reign of the new feudalism.
      What is your choice of the scraps of pleasure
      left for you?”

      By the time I got to processing the image, it was just a photo
      to, and it seemed more sardonic than sad.

      That’s why I called it A Midnight Murder Mystery.

      Thank you for the comment, Jan. It’s amazing how
      much of ourselves goes into our work.

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      1. On follow up: I thought more about your comment. I often feel guilty when people say something I post made them feel sad, especially now when so many people are in pain. But just as all of the writers and artists I’ve met on WordPress have genres and themes, my theme is social justice, and my genre is whatever form I can use to discuss it. I have witnessed the despair of poverty and stigma on the streets of my city for over thirty years. I write about or make illustrations that reflect what I’ve seen. I’ve actually seen someone who was dead surrounded by people who didn’t notice, but that’s a different story for another time. I have to say Jan, your comment, coupled with your most recent Tarot Tuesday helped me to answer a question I’ve been asking myself: Why do I write and make art.

        Because it is a way to bear witness to the pain.

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