The Pickle and the Crowd

 

Between the glass, a pickle flies,

unblinking in the summer skies.

The crowd below does not ask why—

they laugh, they look, they testify.

Some moments are too weird to explain.

You just stand in a city you know well, look up, and see a giant pickle floating between mirrored skyscrapers while a thousand people cheer like it’s sacred.

That’s Picklesburgh.

But beneath the novelty, I saw something deeper—something existential.
This wasn’t just about brine and branding. It was about belonging in the absurd.

Camus described the absurd as the tension between our desire for meaning and the world’s silence. But this? This was the world speaking—just in pickle.

People weren’t pretending this made sense.
They were choosing joy anyway.
And that’s the heart of what I believe photography, and life, sometimes needs to be:
A radical yes.
Even when the object of worship is inflatable.

Photowalk Prompt: Absurdity and Belonging

Seek out local festivals, strange symbols, community rituals.
Don’t mock the weird—honor it.
Find what unites people through the surreal.
Photograph joy, irony, sincerity, and tension—without judgment.