On President’s day (February 19th 2024) I set out to putt throughout my neighborhood. With a putter, golf ball, and my best street golf wear, I tested out different city surfaces on a long walk. In many ways this was a first for me, but in others it wasn’t. Sure I hadn’t putted in a public urban setting before, and it was certainly nerve racking… I actually walked two blocks and around a corner so that none of the neighbors I know would see me. Other times I would walk around holding the putter as if it was a cane—I think this had more to do with the anxieties instilled into me by my mother, relating to fearing being perceived as a threat or criminal—still an important aspect to consider (how will I supply clubs to the public, what will that look like). As far as the golfing in public I ended up finding that the solution was to lean into it—by wearing a costume. My oxfords, argyle socks, and trench coat cardigan combo made my whole body feel like it was allowed to engage in this funky activity. But back to why this wasn’t unfamiliar to me.
I remember the first time I walked around with a film camera (Pentax K1000), I hated that everyone could see me for the activity I was engaging with. I actually still feel this way and now rely on having a point and shoot that can fit in my pocket. But even still, stopping to look through a viewfinder, blinding yourself from your surroundings as you focus in on one rectangle’s worth of information can make you nervous and embarrassed… but wait I only feel embarrassed before or in retrospect, in the moment I’m in the moment. This is where I realized how putting in public and photographing in public relate.
It’s not a stretch to point towards photography being a way to reframe the way you see the world, when you're looking to see something, you're probably going to see something. This can easily be an investigatory act, much like what I was realizing as I putted around these surfaces. I had a ball roll into the street and on to a storm drain. When it landed there I was forced to engage with this aspect of our built environment, and while I didn’t have any specific revelations towards the drain, it did back up my ideas on putting as a method to engage and research.
When I set out on this field work report, my intentions were material. I wanted to test the surfaces that are already present, I wanted to see how the ball behaved over different textures. Yet, after finishing the tour for that day, as well the subsequent field research of the same putting, I realized that I was becoming more and more interested in the performance of it all. It was/ is becoming less about the product and construction, and more about the process and actions and what that all brings up.