Starting up again / Mason Hall

​I've been a self conscious writer since a young age. Labeled with dyslexia and oldest kid of 3 in a Republican Texas family with a hippy minded mother, I was raised in a middle class family with certain expectations. I was a good student with an interest in art and film. After completing a bachelors in art, I was dead set on my art practice. I kept my work private, showing occasionally and focused more on other people's work through events and curation. My art practice is still in effect but after having two kids my practice is more of a hobby.

I've kept track of my astrophotography outings for some time and occasionally write about them, which is the reason the site was started in 2019. Going out every new moon, staying up all night and hunting the night sky with my camera resets my circadian rhythms and adds perspective to my life. 

Few people tell me they don't like thinking about the infinite universe. This hobby is different from others. You can elevate any hobby to a passion or art practice, but the physicality intertwined with the technological and metaphysical aspects of syncing to the rotation of the earth, capturing an image, mentally and mechanically processing the ancient light you've grabbed is as human as it gets.

Processing what's in the sky, how stars are formed, exploring the matter shot into a vacuum by eruptive stellar forces pushes me to grapple with the unknown, and after staying up all night, I often feel accomplished and refreshed. When I’m sleep deprived the next day, I allow myself to rest and  not being on top of everything. Writing about the experience helps extend the image into story, after the images are processed, the event becomes an experience I want to remember.

Over the next few months I’ll be posting posthumously about other outings as exercise in pushing myself to capture these events. 

Here are just a few of the events which have happened over the past 5 years.

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