“The reality that folks need to come to grips with is there simply is not enough mail in the system any longer for us to sustain a six-day network,” said Sam Pulcrano, vice president for sustainability at the post office.
As a cost saving measure, the USPS is hoping to end Saturday mail delivery. But the plan has its critics. Read the full article in the New York Times.
Photos by Remy Steiner
A few years ago I saw Ramak Fazal’s show at the Storefront for Art and Architecture in Manhattan. In 2006 Fazel, a photographer of Iranian descent who is a US citizen, set out in a van to photograph state capitols and mail himself handmade postcards along the way. He used his childhood stamp collection as collage material for the postcards, sending them general delivery to the next stop on his route.
I went to the show for the postage stamp related artwork but there was so much more to Fazal’s story and experience of making the work, that the documentary film-maker in me was quite fired up by the levels of visual, cultural, and political content. Stamps! Road Trip! Photography! Being mistaken for a terrorist! Well there IS a film about Fazel’s trip, quite beautifully made from still photographs and voice over, which I hope gets expanded into a larger piece. Watch it here.
Remember how I posted a few months back about the upcoming Triboro Postmark? The one that would replace the individual neighborhood postmarks in Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island? Well I have some new information. According to Bob Twombley of the USPS Triboro District’s customer relations office, outgoing mail dropped in blue boxes, started to get phased in with the Triboro postmark on August 24th. The postal service hopes to complete this transition by October 5th. As of October 5, 2009, any outgoing mail that is placed in a blue collection box within the confines of Brooklyn, Queens, or Staten Island, will get the new “Triboro District” cancellation. However, Mr. Twombley assured me that every local postmark will remain available at the post office. If you want to have a local postmark with the town name and zip code, all you need to do is bring your outgoing mail to the post office of your choice and request it. Now who has time to stand in line for that, I do not know but it somehow takes a bit of the sting out of losing our neighborhood specificity on our outgoing mail.
Just got back from the Catskill mountains where rural post offices and these roadside signs made me very happy.
Viva Snail Mail: I love this card. What inspired you to design it?
Jamie: When I decided I wanted to make greeting cards—which I’ll come to later—I decided I’d needed some photo references so I wandered the town taking pictures. After going through the shots I stopped on the payphone and mailbox and started thinking about how much more obsolete they have become since the advent of cell phones, email, texting, online bill pay, etc. While they both work as clever ideas, the mailbox in particular has a sentimental quality to it.
As I tried to think of the greeting I wondered if we’d get to/have gotten to a time when younger generations hardly use mail or mailboxes. As they’d have no sentimental attachment to it and, let’s face it, fewer and fewer needs that require its use, they could go a long while never stepping up to a mailbox. Would their be a day when its use and purpose is unrecognizable? This thinking led to the “What is this thing?” line, as a comment on that possibility.
VSM: Why do you make greeting cards?
Jamie: Designing greeting cards solves 2 issues for me.
First, I’m a print designer by trade and I love print, love design you can hold in your hand. It may never disappear completely but there’s a definite shift. Designers typically do as much or more online and interactive design as print design. Faced with this shift in my work, I see designing greeting cards as a way to hold onto my true design passion. I find I’m seeking that a lot.
Second, like a lot of things these days there’s very little romance, style or grace left to corresponding with each other. Digital correspondence is mostly devoid of heart and soul. That’s not to say I don’t use it, I do. But when it comes to a real expression of anything, emails, texts and instant messages lack pretty much everything. They even confuse some things. I think the greeting card remains one of the best ways to correspond in an every day fashion. I wanted to be a part of that.
VSM: Besides sending out products from your etsy shop, what’s the most recent paper mail that you have you sent and received?
Jamie: As a card designer I tend to send out a lot of cards. When I do something new I like to send it out to a friend or family member. It feels more genuine as a designer, if I use my own designs from time to time.
I think the last piece of mail I sent out – that wasn’t a bill – was a card-o-rama for my mom as her birthday falls close to Mother’s Day.
The last piece I received was a wedding invitation from my friend in London. She’s having an authentic country wedding. The invitation was engraved, black wedding script on a white card. No ribbons, no foil, no iconography, just a proper English invitation.
VSM: Thanks Jamie. Viva Snail Mail!Jamie’s work can be seen at:
For those of you living in Queens, Staten Island, or Brooklyn it looks like we will be losing our postmarks- another cost saving endeavor by the Postal Service due to a decrease in business. Read this article in the New York Times and then let’s figure out a creative way to mark the end of a postal era.
Triboro, NY? A Postmark May Trample Civic Pride
Postcard postage is 28 cents for a maximum size card of 6 inches long by 4 and 1/4 inches high. For a larger postcard the postage rate is 44 cents. International rates vary so check usps.com for your destination country. I am going to use 2 of these summer bliss stamps from Grandpa’s collection for the next batch of postcards that I send out. In stark visual contrast to this summer scene, you can buy polar bear postcard stamps at usps.com.
So for those of you who like to cut up your cereal boxes for handmade postcards, buy some stamps and start sending out some of your fabulous collaged creations. For those of you that still have a stash of postcards left over from the good old days, dust ‘em off and send ‘em out. And for those of you that are starting fresh, pick up some corny tourist cards or some lovely black and white photo cards at your local bookstore or cardshop. And get mailing, cross country or crosstown! Imagine how your recipient will feel when they find your handwritten postcard amidst their pile of lousy mail. What a gift.
