iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

New York is my favorite city, sorry not sorry. From March 2026 #photography

A woman in a puffy coat sits in the grass with her yellow lab in Central Park

Pigeons fly over a walkway in Central Park

Footpaths snake between rocky formations in Central Park

081

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Today in text messages from my father

An Apple iMessage bubble reads: “Chipotle is giving out free quesadillas but only with a $20 purchase. Even National Quesadilla Day has become a travesty of itself.”

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This large adult dog only knows how to show affection by sitting bolt upright on my chest. I have a fever and a cough and she thinks this might help

A golden retriever lies belly down on a hardwood floor, her legs splayed out behind her like a roast chicken. She looks guiltily at the camera

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Photographer brain has me calling plantar fasciitis “PLANAR” fascitis, and honestly, in that Zeiss Planar lenses dramatically reduce field curvature (and the arch of my foot feels like it’s caving in)… this tracks

Diagram of the 6 elements that make up the Zeiss Planar lens design

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Chicago is like if New York were clean and the people were sleepier, but with Detroits misguided freeways cutting through it #chicago #photography #leica #blackandwhite

Cloud Gate (the bean) in Chicago, buildings behind it and reflected / distorted on its surface

Underside of the bean, reflecting and distorting the grid of the concrete ground of the plaza below it. A little girl in the corner of the photo runs and waves up at her reflection

Underside of the bean, reflecting and distorting the people and the grid of the concrete ground of the plaza below it.

Crown Fountain. A 50-foot-high stone tower stands in a plaza with a woman’s face projected on its surface. The woman purses her lips and a fountain of water streams from her mouth. People walk in the plaza around the fountain. In the background, buildings on Michigan Avenue surrounding Millennium Park, including the Art Institute of Chicago

2120

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

Los Angeles Angels at Detroit Tigers, May 26th of this year. Hao-Yu Lee at bat. 🎥 #photography #tigers #mlb

Color photograph of Comerica Park, view of the brightly lit field from the concourse. In the distance, Hao-Yu Lee of the Detroit Tigers is at bat, facing the Los Angeles Angels defense. In the foreground, a tv camera operator's silhouette is in shadow in the elf-third of the frame. The operator's monitor (with a close up of the trio at home plate) is visible.

Identical photo the other in this post, but black and white. Photograph of Comerica Park, view of the brightly lit field from the concourse. In the distance, Hao-Yu Lee of the Detroit Tigers is at bat, facing the Los Angeles Angels defense. In the foreground, a tv camera operator's silhouette is in shadow in the elf-third of the frame. The operator's monitor (with a close up of the trio at home plate) is visible.

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Dogventures on Ilford Delta 3200, shot at 1600. Home dev and scan. #filmisnotdead #ilford

Golden retriever lays on a lawn chewing on a stick, stares directly into camera

Golden retriever lays on a brick pedestrian path, lined with street lights and trees, her leash in her mouth

Golden retriever goes down stairs, leaving the house for a walk

1100

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Tacos El Rodeo, Corktown. Legendary Taco Tuesday option #detroit

A Ford employee (button up, dress slacks) stands next to the El Rodeo food truck, adorned with pictures of their menu. In the foreground a red umbrella covers the top fourth of the frame.

The El Rodeo food truck, covered in pictures from its menu, in bright reds and yellows. In front of it, two tables with bright red and yellow umbrellas. Two men stand in front of the food truck and talk, one stretching one hand out, gesturing to the distance. A fallen construction sign, down long enough to have weeds grow around it, lies in the foreground.

000

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

A very excellent cat claims New Center as his own and we can but submit #detroit #photography

A strip of lawn and cement sidewalk between two houses. Center screen in the distance, a white and gray cat rolls on its back, displaying its belly, limbs lifted to the sky

A crop of the previous photo, close-up of the cat on its back, belly on display, paws lifted to the sky

061

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Took a bunch of film pics at Hospitality Included yesterday(development pending). For now let’s all just admire what a serious situation Leila Detroit’s Lebanon sundae is, dear l*rd #detroit #hospitalityincluded

In the foreground, a hand holds out an ice cream cone consisting of Ashta ice cream (rosewater and orangeblossom), cotton candy, and crushed pistatios. In the background a bustling crowd at the Hospitality Included restaurant festival in Detroit

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

Toni Morrison describing the distinctions she needed to draw to create a work of historical fiction (art!) founded in truth. Reading with 2026 eyes: this also speaks to where AI fails (and will fail us) in creating and sustaining art, knowledge, and wisdom. (From: “The Source of Self Regard”)

A picture of a passage in a book. It reads: “For the purposes of the rest of this talk I want us to agree that in all of our education, whether it's in institutions or not, in homes or streets or wherever, whether it's scholarly or whether it's experiential, there is a kind of a progression. We move from data to information to knowledge to wisdom. And separating one from the other, being able to distinguish among and between them, that is, knowing the limitations and the danger of exercising one without the others, while respecting each category of intelligence, is generally what serious education is about. And if we agree that purposeful progression exists, then you will see at once how dispiriting this project of drawing or building or constructing fiction out of history can be, or that it's easy, and it's seductive, to assume that data is really knowledge. Or that information is, indeed, wisdom. Or that knowledge can exist without data. And how easy, and how effortlessly, one can parade and disguise itself as another. And how quickly we can forget that wisdom without knowledge, wisdom without any data, is just a hunch.”

000

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Cinestill BwXX on medium format will save us all. From an sun-drunk Eastern Market photowalk in July. #photography #Detroit

A man and a woman lean against a sun-soaked warehouse wall in Detroit’s Eastern Market. The man looks into the camera, his eyebrows raised over his sunglasses.

A man leans on a sun soaked warehouse wall in Detroit Eastern Market district. He wears a bright white T-shirt and black jeans.

141

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

No joke, this squirrel stared me down for 10 minutes straight. A science writer informs me that if you move your arm up and down in a vertical motion, this mimics the way squirrels communicate aggression to each other with their tails. In case you ever have need to communicate squirrel contempt.

A small black squirrel stands in the middle of an open green lawn at The Shepherd in Detroit. It stares at the camera, empty space all around it. In the foreground the photographer's leg and shoes are visible

A slightly tighter view of the black squirrel in the middle of a grass lawn than the previous photograph

An even closer view of the black squirrel standing in the middle of an empty green lawn than the previous two photos. It stands on its hind legs, its paws clenched together in front of its body. Its facial expression is impassive and sinister

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

If you invite a candidate for a six hour in person interview, don’t then ghost. I so get it: People are busy, an offer out to another candidate might fall through, maybe bureaucracy has struck again and the path forward is ambiguous, etc. But respect and kindness costs very little. 💚

A claymation penguin against a white background, head down, eyes slightly up, wings slightly flared to its side. Text above it reads “can i be mean”

020

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Fix your hearts or die / go see Hadestown in movie theaters, it’s worth it

Still from the Hadestown Pro Shot movie, from the opening number “Road to Hell.” Eurydice and Orpheus stand on either side of Hermes. Behind them, the Chorus, the Fates and the band.

110

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

My cat, Franz Boas, cannot help that he was born v handsome. Shot on #cinestillbwxx on #mediumformat (Mamiya 645 Pro).

Black and white photo of a cat, seated in a cat tree in front of a window. The light from the window lights half his handsome face.

Black and white photo of a cat, seated in a cat tree in front of a window. The light from the window lights half his handsome face. His paw claws at the cat tree basket.

020

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Michigan summer 2024 on slightly expired Portra 800. #photography #portra800 #filmisnotdead

070

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

Today we save $300+ by developing 22 rolls of film at home

A blue-grey tray on a kitchen counter filled with 22 rolls of undeveloped 35mm and 120 film. Also on the counter, a Patterson tank and graduated cylinder

Close up of a strip of black and white 120 film hanging to dry in a kitchen

000

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Studio Create knows how to put on a photo walk. Great photography community turn out this weekend in Eastern Market #photography #detroit #leica

Photo in Eastern Market in Detroit. A man in a bright sunlight leans against a mural-covered warehouse building. In the foreground, two men in black shadow silhouette stand on either side of him

020

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

The Fisher Building has no right to look this good all the time #detroit

A view of the Fisher Building, an art deco sky scraper built 1920s Detroit, on a cloudy day. A skybridge cuts across the image and trees dot the right side of the frame.

030

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

It’s a very Tigers baseball summer here in Detroit, Michigan

A woman in a Detroit Tigers cheer uniform walks up baseball stadium steps. Behind her, the baseball diamond with the game in progress and the stadium crowd on the other side of the field.

A little boy, maybe aged 6, leans face-first into the railing on baseball stadium steps. Behind him, the baseball diamond with the game in progress and the stadium crowd on the other side of the field.

A boy in sunglasses and Detroit Tigers cap and t-shirt mugs for the camera. Behind him, the baseball diamond, game in progress, and a view of the stadium crowd. On the Jumbotron, a family of three is transformed into hotdogs by an AI filter.

000

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Did I spend 6 hours today updating a resume? Yes, yes I did.

Tree limbs and sky, as seen looking up from below

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Belle Isle looking miiiiighty fine this spring #Detroit #photography

A spruce tree. Behind it a row a greenhouses and a family standing in front of (I believe) a Redbud tree. Paths of yellow daffodils snake around the green lawn in the background.

A row of greenhouses. Paths of daffodils snake around the foreground.

A large white (and very old) house. A couple of families sit at picnic tables around it.

Tree branches full of white blooms on (I think) a dogwood tree

090

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 22/04/2026

New York is really good: Central Park is peak dog watching; Hannah Solow was so good in Oh, Mary! I saw that show twice this weekend; and as a kid raised on late night television, felt right to see a taping of the Late Show on one of Colbert’s final weeks. Am I going to move to NYC at 40????

3 color photos of Central Park: the first of pigeons flying over a path, the second of a woman and her dog sitting on a hill, trees and the cityscape behind them, and the third of two diverging paths under trees, cutting through the stone landscape in the park

3 black and white photos of Central park: the first of the treetops, the second of a flock of pigeons flying over a statue, the third of Bethesda fountain, as seen from under a nearby footbridge, dozens of people walking through the area

A man in a gorilla costume walking through Times Square at night

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s Marquee

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 12/04/2026

I should really stop filing my own taxes. Wow, what a painful process. So: this is a photo of my dog, Ottilie/Otto Dog / Ottie. Might as well keep up with that quarterly estimated pet tax while we’re at it.

A golden retriever lying on a grey couch. It has darker red, wavy fur, and one ear inside out.

020

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 11/04/2026

Friends and the Michigan Theater (two of the very best things the world has to offer) in Ann Arbor, MI. #photography #blackandwhite

Black and white photo of two people, one a man and a woman, standing under the marquee of the Michigan theater in Ann Arbor, MI. The man wears a dark jacket and knit cap. The woman has glasses and is wearing a dress and boots. The lights from the marquee shine behind them and reflect off the wet ground around their feet.

170

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 29/12/2024

My 6 month old puppy just chased her tail *around my right leg* for 30 solid seconds and I’m dead now bye

020

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

I did! I tried to name her Frank but she is Ottie and she gained 10lbs in the last 3 weeks. (Pic from pre-Hulk-like transformation.) She enjoys pumpkin, zoomies, and things she can gnaw on.

Golden retriever puppy, 4 months old, splooting on white and black tile floor and gazing into camera.

020

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

We are puppy and have decided that leashes are for tug times

A golden retriever puppy of 5 months, biting its leash and play-bowing on a strip of grass by a sidewalk

010

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 20/12/2023

The Duomo in Milan - Portra 400 on Nikon FM3a and Rolleiflex 3.5F

0162

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 26/11/2023

Signs and details in Bergamo + Verona, Italy. Portra 400, Nikon FM3A and a 40mm Voigtlander lens.

141

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 19/11/2023

Berlin. Kodak Portra 400, Rolleiflex 3.5F.

030

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 18/11/2023

Ope! Kodak Tri-X, Rolleiflex 3.5F.

1426

Bess Anderson @beanders.bsky.social · 01/08/2023

Pride moved from its little one block section of downtown Ypsilanti this year to take up all of Depot Town. As the gods intended. Shot on Kodak Gold. #mamiya645 #kodakgold

Two people sitting on the curb, backlit by bright sun, at Ypsi Pride

A person (black tee shirt, jeans, rainbow bandana)standing in front of their booth and smiling at Ypsi pride

A red food cart with a crowd at Ypsi Pride

A photo of a person wearing a Trans Pride flag as a cape, from behind, at Ypsi Pride

030