Studio 934 is my small corner of the internet, to act as a small portfolio of my various personal works. I initially intended to post about numerous different types of projects, including pages about old programs found on my computer, biographies of obscure bands, commentaries on gameplay footage, photographs taken with a Holga camera, and whatever else came across my mind; this is why the site was referred to as a "Studio," as to reference how more or less any creations of mine would show up here, ranging from writings, videos, and photographs. The "934" was a reference to a house in the neighbourhood that I grew up in, which would always invariably feature numerous crows perched on the fence and trees near it and a large number of poppies in its gardens, symbols that continue to have a strong impact on me.
Ultimately, my various creative writings would prove the most common creations of mine, with a few odd holdouts here and there, but the name stuck. As it continues forth, however, Studio 934 will still remain my own creative portfolio for whatever else I create in the future.
The above photograph was taken by myself in my hometown of Troy, Michigan in about 2012 to 2014, with a Holga 135 camera (I did not get the film developed until 2021, after finding the still-undeveloped roll in my possessions). To my knowledge, the storefront was for an independent grocery store that also had a pharmacy within it, having closed at some point before 2008. The building above has since been razed, with an apartment complex built atop it.
About Ben Crow
While I have consumed my fair amount of literature over the years, with Lolita, American Psycho, Frankenstein, Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas, and Fight Club being some of my favourite books, my various inspirations include sources as diverse as video games like Fire Emblem, Steins;Gate, and Hotline Miami; albums like Led Zeppelin IV, Energy, and Modal Soul; and artists like Francisco Goya, Gustave Courbet, and Junji Ito. Combined with my frequent nightmares and unusual trajectory in life, I like to think that my works cover a number of interesting, unusual, and unique concepts and subjects.
Outside of writing, my other interests include reading, listening to music (with a preference for rock, punk, and metal), baseball, black tea, billiards, video games, photography, beer, gin, bourbon, post-Renaissance art, modern history, thrifting, cycling, skateboarding, playing musical instruments, and birdwatching.
The image to the right is of myself, taken with a Polaroid Sun 600 LMS camera that I sourced for 5 dollars from a Goodwill, with black-and-white film. I only intended to use the resulting photograph as a test to make sure the camera actually worked, but I was rather impressed with the final results.
