It's a year or so since I first heard from Brendan Barry and I was thrilled to get this update on his motel rooms. Not content with a set of deeply uncanny photos, Brendan is taking the images to a different level. Inspired by the American short story, he reached out to some writers who have influenced him and is now collaborating with author Jeff Parker on a book of photographs accompanied by fantastic tales. Let's hope it's on the shelves soon.
All images © Brendan Barry
'Motel 6, Utah'
Motels and hotels. What difference does a single beginning consonant imply?
As an adult, there is a simple answer: A hotel is where you want to be. A motel is where you are at.
The best motel has a pool. I have been going to the motel pool for near to thirty years now looking, probably, for some brunette-haired girl who I met at a motel pool thirty years ago when my grandparents took me to Disney World and left me play with her, thinking it an all-innocent kids thing when even then it wasn't exactly that.
This motel does not have a pool.
This motel has a window in the door.
That is the level of excitement on which this motel is operating.
But I am good with that. I am right with that. I am fine with that. Right fine with that level of excitement. In the disappointment of wrong brunette-headed girls in my life, I have come to be right fine with a room with or without a view. A motel with or without a pool. A sheet to pull back. A TV to light my path to the bathroom.