I Miss You. Here’s Proof.
An Old-Fashioned, Modern Manifesto.
BY MAGGIE MORRIS
VENICE, California – I love sending postcards. More than that, I love receiving them. Getting a little photo and short note in the mail is a moment of joy in what is usually a stack of bills and solicitations. Postcards are purely for the recipient; they require no reply whatsoever. And at a time when all communication is instant, digital, and often reactive, a handwritten note on the back of a picture is a treasure.
Like Twitter, it has a character and space limit. Like Instagram, it inherently says, "look at this place where I am that you are not" — though in a gentler, more personal way.
A postcard is proof in written form that someone was somewhere and thought of me. A postcard can be a physical memento because it took actual time and effort to mail in the world of digital keyboard afterthoughts.
There is something magical about dropping a piece of paper in a box in one part of the world and knowing a hand will carry it to where it is addressed, no matter how far away they may be. I realize this is a dying service and that I can't single-handedly save the post office by regularly corresponding with the friends in my unofficial postcard club. So I created a series of postcards to share what I like to do in a small way and to visually capture Venice, California, where I now live.
Taking the time to sit down and to write — with a pen — something to one specific person, find the mailing address, buy a stamp, and drop a card in a mail takes one away from the immediate expectations of the phone and the laptop.
When I came to Los Angeles three years ago, I arrived as a visitor from New York City with no intention of living here. The visual details of this new place so different from home were a thrill: the architecture, the surfers, the vintage cars, the constant sunshine, the palm trees. I photographed everything I saw daily.
At first this city felt like a vacation from my life. But days turned into months and then into years, and I realized I was not on vacation, but I was making a home in a new place. Here's the Venice where I live.
