This is the Rebellion against overproduced images often in the digital world. These are images made from my film cameras. Each image I shot myself. The subjects are often friends, and acquaintances in their world.
The Metropolis of Industrial Parenthood
Holding Hands while crossing the street. Looking both ways, both times. The snacks in ziplock. The change of clothes in ziplock. The diaper bag and its indentation dug into your shoulder. The thinking for three people, moving at the slow speed of 12, with the social expectation of a speed of one. The bathroom break x 4. The seepage, the tell tale signs of the potty training stealth and how to evade the parent. Packing jackets. Car seats. Fitting meals, exercise, education, and keeping your children safe, and somehow finding time to work simultaneously, and dealing with life, career, and things under the sun. Being a single dad is difficult, but I’ve loved every minute.
I followed this woman and her two kids across three intersections North of Radio City Music Hall during this past summer in NY to wait for the moment to take this one shot. I recognized the countenance on her face. Concern, worry, a frequent glance to her wristwatch, a vigilant nod towards the oncoming traffic, the side to side head turn radaring the current position of the children, aka, the GPS turn. Trucks thunder on by, taxis honk, and wind funnels down through the buildings in all different directions, a subway train empties and the people pour out like ants out of the subway tunnels creating instant crowds in seconds. On top of all your protection instincts to get you and your kids through the next 15 mins, you have their college tuition, the need for yet another size up in booster seats, braces, and the desire for a strong pursuit of education and Belief embedded in their life.
As I type this, I’m watching my kids at a playground in Santa Monica hanging out with another friend and her kid. Tag teaming with vigilance to buy precious moments of clarity to collect thoughts. To regain composure, to breathe and to take a two minute vacation while she watches for squabbles with the other kids, the sand in the eyes, the prevention of the fall from heights, and the lurkers, all to have the strength to make it through traffic, which leads to bathtime, which leads to bedtime, which leads to storytime. And then afterwards I will have an opportunity to upload this.
Most of the people on Tumblr have the time to be blogging, since most are not yet parents. But as a parent, I have to make time, usually after the kids are down 7:30-8pm. But just because I became a parent, it doesn’t change who I am. I’m still the same guy, just with less time to myself. So the next time you are in Southern Califonia, and you see a guy moving only as fast as a 2 and 4 year old attention span can move, carrying a Rolleiflex with a smile on his face, that’s probably me. And its probably me that you are going to have walk around, because you have an appointment to get to, or there is coffee for you to consume, you have a schedule to meet, and you have all this free time to get there by yourself quickly. But I’m smiling, because I know when these kids are older, the conditioning, the life experiences, the educational standard, and the cultural opportunities, the headstart on life for them will be far greater in the metropolis than say a retirement community in Southwest Florida.
Midtown-Facing South on 6th Ave North of 51st
Rolleiflex 2.8E 80mm Schieneder-Krueznach Portra 160 NC
Notes