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Lydia Armstrong

@thicketoftrash

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Writer, photographer, filmmaker.
Old family photos: @found_family

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The most patriotic thing you can do is love and protect your neighbors. There’s nothing patriotic about loving your government—in fact, if you are a believer of claimed American values, the worship of a king is the opposite of patriotism.

Your country is the land and the living things on it, and the people, all of them. We the People means your neighbors.

We the People means your NEIGHBORS.

I believe a little bit in the promise of America, despite the proof otherwise, maybe because two of my grandmothers immigrated here in the 20th century and my family has always straddled a line between being super American and not American at all. No one believes more strongly in the American dream than the immigrant; it’s because America truly is a freer, safer, more prosperous country than most places in the world, and they come here seeking something most Americans in our contentment cannot fathom. My maternal grandmother’s family came here shortly after Fidel’s takeover of Cuba and lost everything—these are people who understand in deeply personal ways what democracy means.

Lastly I think it’s important to remember indigenous Americans still live here and can see and hear the language we use to “celebrate” the “birth” of “our” country.

Slide 6: American flags in Carytown after 9/11
Slide 8: my car circa 2002
Slide 9: my car after 9/11, before 🇺🇸 by @thicketoftrash

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3 months ago

I’m interested in a lot of different stuff for different reasons, but I think in photography I get really curious about American culture (even the appropriated parts, like rodeo and surfing). I’m curious about my community and the communities around me; I’m always fascinated by what I find here, in Virginia. It’s amazing to me the things people dedicate their time to, the ways we find meaning, whether it’s a sport or a passion, family, purpose, prosperity, or—as depicted in my last couple posts—the fight to secure these things.

These are thoughts in my head as I bookend two Black Lives Matter protest posts with rodeo throwbacks. I wonder all the time, people who came here for the rodeo photography, or surfing, or skateboarding, or social justice or currents events, or 35mm film, or poetry, or zines, or because I’m super hot, or whatever—this has been my main account for over 14 years—how does everything else land? I never take it personally when people I don’t know choose to unfollow me—my page jumps around a lot. I can understand wanting to come in but not to stay.

Some favorite rodeo photos from previous seasons, various film stocks

Stay curious, y’all. Thanks for being here 🙏🏼 by @thicketoftrash

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4 months ago

In 2017, I was focused on writing and hadn’t done much with photography in several years. I got the idea to do a romantic photoshoot on disposable cameras after my friend Alison had some disposables at her birthday picnic—the sun and heat overexposed the film and the picnic photos came out soft and dreamy. On October 28th, my cousin Felina and I lugged several enormous bags of wardrobe changes and two disposable cameras all over town, for eight hours, without snacks.

We climbed trees, we laid in grass, we got in the freezing river. I had a ton of hairspray and glitter spray in my hair, later joined by sticks and leaves from the James, and when I finally climbed out of the water after we shot our last frame, I said, “My hair is a thicket of trash right now.”

And here we are.

That photoshoot, and before it, @alisonbeshai ‘s birthday picnic, inspired a return to photography and the super fun, incredibly rewarding journey the last eight years have been.

Thanks y’all 🩷

(If you have any knowledge of my “magnolia foot,” that’s actual footage of me contracting it in slide 9.) by @thicketoftrash

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a year ago

Thanks Ma by @thicketoftrash

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2 days ago

SATURDAY!!!! by @thicketoftrash

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2 days ago

A drunk woman agreeing to threesomes is a woman agreeing to nothing by @thicketoftrash

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3 days ago

On this day in 2022, I got scans back from Richmond’s annual fall Pride event. All these bright beautiful colors lifted my spirits this morning when I was perusing my photos memories, and I hope they’ll lift yours too.

Proud of my queer friends all year long 🌈 by @thicketoftrash

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4 days ago

@richmondzinefest is in 6 days!! I made so much shit this year, come buy my zines! I’ve got stuff to trade too plus some new stickers so stop by, say hi, behold our wares ✨📚✂️ by @thicketoftrash

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7 days ago

In Stephen Hawking’s final theory on the origin of the universe, he describes the universe as shaped like the surface of a sphere. Not shaped like a sphere, shaped like the SURFACE of a sphere. In this way the universe has no boundaries but is finite in area—it doesn’t have a beginning or end but it doesn’t go on forever. If you follow the history of theories on how our universe came to be, and all the things we’ve mostly ruled out as likely not it, it’s actually a pretty plausible theory, even if the details of it sound a little (or a lot) sci-fi. Hawking’s theory involves holography, and like this quote from an article on Cambridge’s website summarizes, “postulates that the universe is a large and complex hologram: physical reality in certain 3D spaces can be mathematically reduced to 2D projections on a surface.”

The religious often cast the non-religious as immoral but I think evolution is a more humanitarian way of looking at our time here. In all our modern convenience, we forget we are organisms that require clean water, safe food, shelter, oxygen. We exist here naturally, because billions of years ago old stars died and exploded and their debris shot into space until it eventually collected again into a new star, into planets, and into carbon that made you, same as it made trees and horses. To me this is God, and God and science are the same.

This general scope of things is partially why I believe any regulation imposed by government should protect people, other living things, and our ability to safely access our basic needs as organisms on Earth. Government, business, profit, organized religion—these are all things we made up and can be amended. We can always make up different shit, but we can’t amend the fact that without food and water, we die. Without shelter, we die. Our own evolution has given us the knowledge and resources to provide food and medicine to everyone in the world, and yet our purported holiest are protecting billionaires hoarding wealth from the people. by @thicketoftrash

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9 days ago

Angelic photos of @poppylafae taken around this time in 2022 and scanned that year on this day 👼🏻💕

35mm film, I forget what 💕 by @thicketoftrash

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9 days ago

Between 2009 and 2012, I had a fashion blog on Blogger. This was mostly before IG, which launched in 2010 and was small and mostly still just blurry photos of our lunches for a few years. My blog was also small but my little audience included other bloggers around the country and world that became my first internet friends; it took a while to find my angle but mostly I posted daily outfits and reviews of runway shows featuring photos stolen from Vogue.com.

I turned 30 in the middle of my blog years and I don’t post photos from this time often. It wasn’t a great time. I was in a bad relationship and struggling to find the right line of work. My partner made me feel small and my attempts to change my job field made me feel useless. These were some of the worst years of my life and yet my blog was titled “And This Is Peak.”

I quit the blog because it became tiresome and the fashion blogosphere disintegrated once Instagram picked up. Humans like fast quick small. Life changed, the internet changed. I’m mostly a writer quietly working on a novel for y e a r s and I like taking pictures and lately it’s been fun sharing outfits again on the World Wide Web.

One thing I’d say about my style during that time is, I was dressing for the blog and today I dress for myself. Sometimes I tried to stand out with weirder, quirkier outfits because by the time I entered blogging, it was already reaching saturation. Most fashion bloggers were either some version of normcore, vintage, or maximalism and I leaned toward the last one. Sometimes I overdid it trying to be different and muddied my actual personal style along the way.

Here are some of my less cringey lewks by @thicketoftrash

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11 days ago

🚶🏻‍♀️‍➡️ by @thicketoftrash

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11 days ago