Alpha Exposure

a close-up of a baby with diffusion filter

Alpha Exposure

n.
the otherworldly aura of seeing recordings of a friend in early childhood—catching those little gestures you’d one day come to know, so recognizable yet so foreign, searching their eyes for traces of who it is they’d eventually become.

From alpha, the unstable initial release of software still being tested + exposure, the amount of time that light is allowed onto photographic film.

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Aftersome

rows of opaque and clear marbles

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Austice

a leaf imprint in the mud

Vellichor

shelves with many books stacked and organized

Halfwise

a train coming towards the camera shot from the tracks

Inerrata

a hand holding a broken cup

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

O’Erpine

a person looking at a grave

Harke

a dreamlike image of a person's face over water

Keyframe

a large rock in the water with emanating ripples

Backmasking

a woman's face with a double exposure

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Present-Tense

a close-up of a stopwatch

Hickering

Cover image for the Hickering word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

On Tenderhooks

Cover image for the On Tenderhooks word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Ne’er-Be-Gone

Cover image for the Ne’er-Be-Gone word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Allope

Cover image for the Allope word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Ellipsism

a hand clawing at a wall

Attriage

Cover image for the Attriage word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Hemeisis

Cover image for the Hemeisis word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows

Star-Stuck

a man walking towards a door with a large question mark

Altschmerz

Cover image for the Altschmerz word card on the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows