Man working

I started as a middle-of-the-road grad student.  My goal was to destroy “the photograph” and Art with a capital A.  I wanted it to be something else.  In the end, Man Working wasn’t.  The chunky, high-contrast, black and white street scenes shot from the hip are like any other street photographer’s before me.  For that reason, I left the camera and Art with a capital A behind after art school.

For the most part.

Ever since, my phone has replaced my camera.  No longer an artist with a capital A or a photographer with a P of any shape or size, I’ve become a Midwesterner, Southerner, East and West Coast guy – a part-time Professor, liquor store clerk, forklift driver, wedding bartender, Amazon warehouse robot, labor organizer, and Communications Director.  In every new home and title, the only thing I’ve known for certain is that I’m still compelled to point whatever lens I have in hand at moments that go unnoticed, but shouldn’t – moments of banality with not-banal consequences.

Hindsight and time passed are a luxury I now have, so it’s cheating for me to contextualize Man Working today. What it was then or is now.  However, it’s hard to not see the black and white photographs as a preface to the images I’ve been collecting ever since – a preface to whatever you or I think today is.  Combined, I see a portrait of us and what we’ve done.

Cynical? Absolutely. But, cynicism most often reflects realism. And, the reality I see reflected back at me is an America that isn’t divided. It’s broken the same amount everywhere.