Please join Synkroniciti in welcoming poet and photographer Jason Baldinger. His photographs of Midwestern America are evocative and satirical, ranging from industrial decay to urban sprawl and small town quaint. The “Curiosity” issue features three of Jason’s photographs in ekphrastic collaboration with poems by Robert L. Dean, Jr: “Hinton, West Virginia,” paired with “Heaven from Here;” “Weirton, West Virginia,” paired with “Subject to;” and “Bellevue, Ohio,” paired with “Smile You Are.” Rendered in crisp black and white and generally free of human presence, unless the photographer is reflected in a plate glass window or such, the images can be stark, even apocalyptic, but they also have a sense of surrealistic humor that appeals to the eye and mind. We encounter absurdities every day, especially where the past leaves artifacts that create a jarring juxtaposition with the present. These incongruities become so commonplace that we fail to mark them. Jason does this for us and Robert L. Dean, Jr further pursues the weird and arcane all around us with his thoughtful and lightly snarky poetry. Stay tuned for more about this delightful combination in Robert’s artist feature.
Experience Jason’s slices of modern America in the upcoming “Curiosity” issue, now available for pre-order here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/. The issue drops on June 1st, online only.
Jason Baldinger is a poet and photographer from Pittsburgh, PA. He’s penned fifteen books of poetry the newest of which include: The Afterlife is a Hangover (Stubborn Mule Press) and A History of Backroads Misplaced: Selected Poems 2010-2020 (Kung Fu Treachery), and This Still Life (Kung Fu Treachery) with James Benger. His first book of photography, Lazarus, is forthcoming. His work has appeared across a wide variety of print journals and online. You can hear him read his work on Bandcamp and on lps by The Gotobeds and Theremonster.