Category: photography

Amber’s Projecting


I met Amber a few years ago when she visited Paul. With the hat and heavy coat I didn’t recognize her. Reappeared in City Hall Park the other day. She was looking for me. Wants to work on a photography project with me for school. Her assignment is to find a local photographer to shoot.

She didn’t have a camera; lost the charger. I shot. She posed. We bothered a few passersby to hold a small reflector. The light at 12:00 poked through the bare trees harshly, bouncing off the metal sculptures. No time to head for cover.

Then we walked down to little park in front of the Men’s Room hair salon. Bitterly cold. Low, unremitting light.

 

 

 

Eric Looks Good-James Just Looks


Hadn’t seen him for a while. Went home to see family for Thanksgiving. Staying off the street at Chad’s place, which is near Leddy Park and an Hannaford’s. He can use his food stamps and hang out in a more bucolic setting.

He says he is “a work in progress, just stuck in a groove for the present time.”

James has some problems showing up at school. He says he’s ready to do things. Needs more control over himself. Knows he is smart. Knows he can produce. Needs some support. Tired of prepping and ready to move on.

Meatwad Wonders What


Needs to know which devil to attack first. As one of the survivors told me, “he need to give up the dope and the alcohol….” But which one first? And the where does he go? Cannot possibly seamlessly merge back into the system, unless taken care of. Do we? A line gets drawn in the sand. Join up to receive. If not, what?

So, what’s the problem? Heroin. Does he do a substitute? Alcohol? Can we dope him up to get him off the sauce? He has court cases. Will he be sober enough and healthy enough to go to a treatment facility? I make him laugh. He makes me cry. I want him to be well. Nothing I can do for him at the moment. He sits and begs. People look at me from the nearby diner, not happy about him being there and wondering why I do what I do. I don’t shoot them. They are only secondarily my subjects. Can my images change opinions? Who knows?

 

Richard North Exiled To Main Street


Richard used to control the area near Price Chopper in South Burlington. He has been put off Church St and barred from City Hall Park. But he hasn’t given up on Burlington, yet.

Tough work, if you can deal with sitting on the pavement. Paul used to say it was good work if you could deal with the rain and wind. Paul died on a grate. Richard doesn’t sit alone. Skippy sits nearby, alert and oblivious.

And then there was this new guy who said when I asked him his name, “I have been called many names….”

 

 

 

Impressionism at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

One of the great museums in the world; one of the best exhibitions I have ever seen. Learned many things; didn’t realize that Dega’s ballerina wore a cloth skirt. Saw the art up close. Not that we haven’t been to the Clark several times to see Sterling and Francine’s collection, but this visit felt differently.