Mundane Joy – Ian Talty, 1978 – 2009

This isn’t the post I wanted to write today. My God, not ever.

My friend Ian, better known to you tube denizens as The Joy of the Mundane, died on Sunday. He was a prolific photographer, a joyful explorer, and a passionate artist. One of the fucking greatest, and as one commenter on Flickr said, “he died with his boots on.”

He touched a lot of lives, and the flood of comments on his last Flickr upload and torrent of blogs, notes, and tributes from friends, fans, people whose work Ian admired, and total strangers is a stunning testament to what a giant he was, and what a huge hole he’s left in that community (Ian would probably have liked me to make a goatse.cx joke here, but you know, my heart just ain’t in it).

There just isn’t the space here to link to everything. It’s crazy. I don’t think any of us (Ian included) truly realized the amazing reach of his work before this.

But Ian was more than that. A devoted husband and a great dad. A true friend. A role model to me personally, someone whose opinion I respected more than damn near anyone else’s, although I never said it to him. I should have. Ian is actually a big part of the reason I went into business for myself. Ian believed in me. Ian believed in everyone. There was never a man happier for the good fortune of his friends, or so humble and appreciative of his own. Ian was the best of all of us. I keep stumbling over words here because it just doesn’t seem real, or even possible. Such men should not die.

He was a giant to everyone who knew him. He was the only truly decent human being I’ve probably ever met in my life. And now he’s gone. What the hell else is there to say?

Godspeed, friend Ian.