The Darth Mall a personal website

Photographs

Black-capped Night-heron

A bird with deep blue feathers on its head and back, gray wings, and a white underbelly, and three long white feathers protruding from the back of its head over it’s back, stands on a large stone surrouned by water with its head lowered, looking intently at the water (or something in it).

Afternoon Light

One half of a set of old, wooden double doors stands open, afternoon light streaks across the open door and the three panels of opaque white glass set in its top half, leaving the bottom half of the door in shadow; another outer door, this one closed, with thick metal bars is visible through the open door; the other half of the double-doors is visible only as three white rectangles of the glass set in the top half

Welcome Incoming Fortune

A narrow hallway leading to a door with a piece of square red paper taped to it; the square is rotated 45 degrees so that the corners of the square are oriented vertically and horizontally, and on the square is a single, complex piece of Chinese calligraphy; the hall is illuminated by a red paper lantern with a tassle hanging from the bottom hanging just in front of the door on the left of the frame, and a scooter is parked in the hall, taking up about one third of the hall on the left side of the frame in front of a metal garage door

A black and white photo of a toddler standing at a window with his back to the camera looking out between a pair of sheer curtains with his arms spread wide to either side; the light coming in through the window is so bright that the window appears to be a solid white wall, nothing on the outside is visible

What Do These Lines Mean?

A toddler in the center of the frame wearing a blue puffy jacket and a bright blue bike helmet steps over the 20 yard line as he takes long strides across a green football field; in the distance a number of single family homes with bare trees is visible on the other side of a field of yellowish brown grass, in stark contrast to the bright green of the football field

A toddler in a puffy blue jacket and a bright blue helmet rides a green balance bike in an empty basketball court dappled with long shadows; in the background is a two story brick building, the only visible windows are the glass in the entry way behind the only visible basketball hoop

A white sheep with curving horns and black wool just around its eyes stands with its forelegs on a fence, peering over the top; it’s a sunny day with scattered puffy white clouds against a blue sky, and there is snow on the ground

An enormous tiered yellow sphere lit from above; the sphere is made of short, progressively smaller cylinders stacked atop one another

A black and white photo of a dense city pocked with skyscrapers; rays of sun shine through hazy clouds over the city, and in the distance sillhouettes that hint at the presence of mountains

Lantern Festival (2019)

A praying mantis lantern made of translucent paper in reds, yellows, and white stretched over a frame of thin, flexible rods and illuminated from within rears back on its hind legs and raises its arms menacingly; it is surrounded by other large lantern insects in a variety of hues and of similar construction

A man stands on a field of short, dry grass in a dark suit and bright pink turbin twirls two sparklers around him with his arms crossed in front of his body as he looks off into the middle distance towards the right side of the frame; he is surrounded from the knees up by smoke from the sparklers; just visible the the haze of the smoke, a crowd of people mills around behind him, with more smoke and sparks visible from other fireworks

The End of a Long Day

A young woman in an elaborate red dress with a necklace of flowers sits underneath a canopy of white fabric at night among a crowd of people in suits and dresses, some of whom are wearing bright pink turbins; she is facing the camera with her head turned down and to the right

A panorama of mountains whose tops are dusted with snow surrounding a large body of water; the sky is filled with white puffy clouds

Dead Serious™

A young asian woman in a white, knee-length dress and a blue and green striped cardigan sits in a white, plastic, modern chair at a wooden kitchen table and looks into the camera with a serious expression on her face; her hair is cut short—down to the bottoms of her ears—and frames her eyes as she looks into the camera with a serious expression on her face; behind her is a large window and a partially opened patio door; treetops and a red roof are visible through the window

Hanging Out on a River Bank in Stockholm

Four people sit on a concrete curb on the bank of a river with their backs to the camera on a sunny day; in the background, a boat on the river protrudes from the right side of the frame, and a train is visible crossing a bridge behind it

Playing Gomoku with 木三 (Musan)

A Go board sits on a wood floor with two dozen black and white pieces on it; a person’s hand is visible on the left side of the frame with their middle finger resting on a white piece after having just placed it on the board

媽媽 (Mama) in 陽明山國家公園 (Yangmingshan National Park)

A black and white of a woman holding an open umbrella on a foggy day standing on a stone path; she is wearing a light colored hat with a brim that goes all the way around, a dark jacket, and dark trousers and is carrying the umbrella over her shoulder as she looks down at the ground towards the right edge of the frame; the path is paved with irregularly cut stones that are placed to form a relatively flat path with shallow steps leading from teh bottom center of the frame off to the right edge of the frame and is surrounded by trees and bushes

Hiking in 陽明山國家公園 (Yangmingshan National Park)

A black and white photo of a woman walking away from the camera along a stone path on a foggy day; the paving stones are large and irregularly shaped, but they form a flat, regular path heading off into the distance; the pathis surrounded by trees and bushes; the woman is kicking up her left heel as she walks and waving her arms above her head, she has long, dark hair and is carrying a purse draped over her right arm

(Former) Tobacco Factory

A black and white photo of two arches of a cloister; in the left arch, a lamp hangs from the ceiling, illuminating a double sliding glass door leading to a large empty room with white walls, a concrete floor, and an open ceiling with visible duct work; in the right arch two blurry figures in the center of the arch are walking along the cloister towards the left edge of the frame, the wall behind them is dark except for a vertical white rectangle containing three characters written in Chinese

Two sets of train tracks run down the center of the frame and then veer off to the right, they are surrounding by bright yellow roofs on the left and right; the roof on the left ends in the wall of a second story made of tiled glass blocks topped with a similar yellow roof; in the distance are tall buildings, and beyond that green mountains

A Dog Awaiting Their Human

A small white dog with a little reddish brown fur on its ears stands on the small platform of a gray scooter parked at the side of the street; its ears are up and the tips are flopped over forward as it looks out from the side of the scooter towards the left side of the frame as if it is watching something

A 北投區 (Beitou) Alley

An alley lined by apartment buildings; many of the buildings have awnings or metal cages protruding from the side of the buildings over the windows; a large tree on the right side of the frame grows up and over a concrete wall, providing a canopy at the entrance to the alley; the alley is concrete and has some inlaid square tiles forming two parellel lines down the center of the alley, with rows of perpendicular tiles at regular intervals dividing the concrete up into rectangles between the two liens

A black and white photo of a man in the middle distance standing at a bar; he is holding his hand over his mouth, with one finger under his nose and the other three curled around his chin, and is wearing round glasses, a dark button-down shirt, and has short, dark hair and a close-cropped beard; he is illuminted from the left side of the frame by an old table lamp with tassles hanging from the shade; dozens of wine glasses hang by their stems from the ceiling, and in the foreground a woman bartender in a dark shirt with white vertical stripes mixes a drink

NOT ART Near the Brooklyn Public Library

Seen through the bars of a black wrought iron gate, the words “NOT ART” in all caps have been spray painted in black through a stencil onto a bright red patch of wall, each word is on a line by itself so that the letters of each word line up with one another; the surrounding wall is a dull brown with patches of red paint; at the top of the wall is more wrought iron fence, behind which is lush greenery

A woman in a white gown laughs as she is lifted up by a crowd of people inside a large white tent; the tent is illuminated by string lights and camera flashes

An amusement park surrounded by trees sits at the edge of a large river that occupies the bottom of the frame, three tall thin towers stick up from the park above the horizon; in the distance, the roofs of city buildings can be seen just above the treetops; the top three quarters of the frame is occupied by a dusky blue-gray sky with long thin clouds

Swedish Royal Guard

A parade of people in bright blue uniforms, some wearing cylindrical hats, others with silver and gold helmets with a spike on top, ride horses down the street toward the camera

A broken down truck with a flat tires, no windows, a missing headlight, and a smashed hood sits in yellow dirt in front of a plain building; the truck is listing toward the driver-side front wheel as if that wheel is missing

Empty Market Street in 九份 (Jiufen)

A black and white photo of a woman in a white shirt and dark trousers with a purse hung over her right shoulder walking down a narrow street lined with shops; most of the shops have paper lanterns of various shapes and sizes with Mandarin characters written on them hung outside

Temple Guardian

At the right of the frame in the foreground is the corner of a roof covered with round, bright yellow tiles; atop the corner, facing away from the camera toward the center of the frame, is a statue of a person with their left arm raised riding some kind of monster whose green, yellow, and orange fur resembles a sea anemone more than actual fur; the statue looks out over a bay surrounded by tree-covered mountains; a smattering of buildings is just visible along the coast

Multnomah Falls

Water cascades over an abrupt cliff’s edge, sharp rocks covered with plant life frame the falls; in the distance, steep mountainsides covered with plants and trees give the impression that the photo was taken from high up

The Mattress Factory

Three panels of plywood hang horizontally suspended from wires; the panels are each bent to different degrees and hung from different heights, they have grooves cut into them; behond the plywood a woman with long dark hair stands with her head tilted to the right to match the curve of the plywood in front of her as if she were resting her head on it

Chaos Canyon Cascade

A small stream runs down a short cascade of rocks in the middle of a pine forest; a small boulder in the middle of the cascade briefly splits the stream in two; the surface of the stream appears white and smooth

A black and white photo; in the background, in the left half of the frame, a large chateau including a tall spire with a cross atop is surrounded by a field of snow; on the right half of the frame two people in winter coats walk away from the camera down a road paved with cobble stones; at the end of the road, in the distance, is a large statue of a person riding a horse; the sky is covered with clouds

A black and white photo of a large courtyard covered in snow with a a few people walking around; the courtyard is dominated by a large glass pyramid surrounded by fountains; two smaller pyramids are placed just outside fountains surrounding the larger pyramid; the building forming one edge of the courtyard is old and ornate, covered with many statues and lined with arches along the ground

A black and white photo of an ornate building taken at a jaunty angle; the visible portion of the building forms a trapezoid, it has a large window in the middle that is surrounded by ornate sculptures of people and flowers; in the foreground at the bottom right of the frame, a portion of a statue of a person riding a horse is visible; a real bird sits atop the statues head; both the building and the statue are covered with a light dusting of snow