Just a Scratch

I wanted to tell the stories of people who inspired me, and thus, tell my own story. It’s very difficult to describe what I do. It’s very difficult to portray me with a sentence or two. And that’s true of almost everybody because we’re all multi-faceted, like diamonds. Turn us just a little and you’ll see something new.

I wanted an ODE to be something you could hold in your hand and turn over like a trinket that would reveal subtle variations the closer you looked. The whole idea is they they be dense, but only when you look closely. From a distance they’re designed to be just arresting images, photographs that suck you in.

Background is important. Lighting is important. And so is the person’s face, their eyes. I want to capture that feeling you get when you really connect, that moment when you become a person’s friend, forever. That moment when time vanishes. The present. The now.

The few hours I spent with Shalaco were like that. He’s fascinating and hilarious and passionate about his causes. I barely scratched the surface of him, but this is a good scratch I think. A deep scratch. Maybe you can feel just a little bit of what I felt like when I was with him in his house in the Mission. I felt like I belonged.