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.

Enterhood

adults with stern expressions holding a child

Pithered

stacks of papers and folders piled high on a table

Echthesia

blurry image of two clocks

Lisolia

a bookcase containing objects

Tirosy

a close-up of a young child's face

Alpha Exposure

a close-up of a baby with diffusion filter

Ecury

a close-up of cave drawings and symbols

Yeorie

a woman with tendrils of smoke moving across her face

Énouement

a hand opening a curtain

Epistrix

several doors standing in a dark room

Appriesse

a blurry image of a person looking at mounted images

Daguerreologue

Daguer-reologue

a man sitting in blurred silhouette at a desk

Emorries

a magnifying glass over photos and books

Archimony

a person looking at broken furniture

Blinkback

a wall full of pictures and objects

Walloway

water faucet that seems to emanate from the ground

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape

Anticious

a group of men in hats looking at elevated signage

Ledsome

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

Rivener

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

Halfwise

a train coming towards the camera shot from the tracks

Mornden

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

Anecdoche

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

Ioia

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

Ironsick

a group of random devices

Heartworm

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

Zysia

a kite soaring above an empty landscape