mads

there is no word tender enough to be your name ~ 19

[imdatingurdad]

Wtf is hook up culture? write me poems then die in a war

[allloversbetray]

“It’s a wonder I’m even alive. Sometimes I think that. I think that I can’t believe I haven’t killed myself. But there’s something in me that just keeps going on. I think it has something to do with tomorrow, that there is always one, and that everything can change when it comes.”

— Augusten Burroughs, Running With Scissors

[slavicafire]

what I really like about all these vintage couple’s portraits is that there is a very certain romatic decorum kept up – certain themes and poses – which, while of course being the mainstream preferred view of couples repeated throughout many studios, are just… so nice to look at. 

this staged affection, a mix of theatricality and intimacy, the couple holding still for a couple of moments and now immortalised in a very set sequence of embraces and kisses. there is a charm to it even when I can’t tell whether this was a genuine couple portait or just actors hired by the photographer.

the kiss on the bare shoulder (eyes perfectly averted), the cheek caress, the piano and the violin, the interrupted embrace, the woman tilted back as in a half-stopped dance…

[slavicafire]

I simply must torment you a bit with these, let us see some of my personal favourites! (part one due to the image limit)

let us start with the kiss on the cheek (eyes averted! oh the pose! these were taken between 1910-1940)

or the nearly opposite energy (how daring!) of the kiss or caress with direct eye contact (1910-1930)

and then the innocent – yet so flirty – classic of the park encounter! (1890-1920)

[slavicafire]

and then the famed kiss on the bare shoulder – what an idea, what a vibe, such intimacy! (1910-1930)

and oh, I am not done, look at this – the adoration of the woman! look at this expression, this pose, this decorum! (1910-1940)

and then some of my favourites from the more playful or direct category, enjoy (1910-1930):

[slavicafire]

and, at last (thank you for still being here and witnessing my recent fascination with vintage polish photography) my three absolute favourites outside of any particular categories (1910-1930)

just look at her. just look.

[manafractal-deactivated20250906]

walk with me.. what if life isn't about having a respectable occupation but retaining a heart uncorrupted + a spirit untainted

[lulavvpoetry]

“You are cold and flame. You are the crimson of amaryllis, the silver of moon-touched magnolias.”

-Amy Lowell, Opal.

[weltenwellen]

L. A. Johnson, from "Birthmark"

[fashionablyuninvitedx]

sorry for being weird and evasive. i was raised to believe that having wants and needs was a moral failing

[oaluz]

“Ugliness is a pathway to intimacy. You can’t have intimacy without trust, and you can’t have trust without vulnerability. In order to be vulnerable, you have to reveal parts of yourself that are dismissed as capital-U Ugly. There’s also this piece around disability — the interdependence of disability is inescapable. I feel like access is not a burden, it’s an amazing opportunity to be generative, to deepen community, relationships, everything.

When I think about intimacy and its connections to beauty, I feel like it’s more connected to ugliness than beauty. I think the only way that we can build intimacy is through ugliness. For example, there is something very magnificent about how disabled people build access to intimacy — that kind of intimacy that comes with not being afraid to state your access needs. Not beauty, but the magnificence or the learned experiences that ugliness teaches you on how to survive. People see this as an extremist thing, but what I’m saying is that it’s been a way in my life to not let go of people, and to live in that interdependence that doesn’t always feel revolutionary and good. Sometimes it fucking sucks — sometimes you just want to be able to take a walk by yourself. Sometimes it sucks to have to depend on someone to help you take a walk by yourself.

There are times when it’s incredibly hard. I’ve learned and we have all learned so many different pieces of how to survive, how to be and thrive within our lived experiences. The alternative is to pretend it away, but I also think there is something with disability that doesn’t allow you to turn away. You could try to pretend it away even though your reality is not such. But there’s a concreteness to me about disability that doesn’t allow you to pretend it away.

Shitty things happen. Ugliness is all around us all the time. Sometimes shit is not beautiful and that’s okay, that’s actually more generative, there is a depth to that. If I was able-bodied and I didn’t fall all the time, I would never know that experience and that depth. There have been so many amazing strangers who have helped me pick up all of my things from the sidewalk, from the floor, helped me get some ice. All of these pieces of everyday life are so connected to those moments of intimacy. There’s something in that.”

Why Ugliness is Vital in the Age of Social Media - Mia Mingus

[fairydrowning]

Grief is the only proof that I love and I love well. Love and grief are actually intertwined with each other and as "Akif Kichloo" once wrote, "the opposite of grief is not laughter or happiness or joy. It is love. It is love. It is love."

[fairydrowning]

"Grief is love's souvenir. It's our proof that we once loved. Grief is the receipt we wave in the air that says to the world: Look! Love was once mine. I love well. Here is my proof that I paid the price."

– Glennon Doyle Melton, Love Warrior

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

The gaps between the sunlight haunts me with your absence .

[fromdarzaitoleeza]

Life without you is feasible but completely miserable.

[horrorfilmdyke]

the saying you cant miss what you never had is so insane to me.... like um actually i am always missing what i never had. theres so much missing... i miss everything

[capacity]

ill never win an idgaf war love disarms me completely and im bleeding out

[trees-and-planets]

— Albert Camus, The Possessed

[typewriter-worries]

[ Text ID: Yes, be patient with me. My heart is heavy. ]

[weltenwellen]

Hari Alluri, from “Ancestral Memory”, After Kwame Dawes 

[jondrettegirls]

[ID: text which reads, “I, too, have been losing my gentleness since the first young wound.” end text. End ID.]

[redrola]

[pixiedeadbeat]

Rosemary, Penthouse Magazine PPOM September 1974.

[fragrantblossoms]

Man Ray. Miss You. Billet autographe signé « Man », sans lieu ni date.