by Brad Puet | Apr 6, 2012 | 24HRProject, Brad Puet
This week We Are Juxt will be sharing with you stories from the amazing 24 Hour Project that Renzo @aliveinnyc and Sam @whittiersam organized on March 24, 2012. We Are Juxt has a few photographers who participated and in celebration of such a worldwide event, wanted to give you summaries of their 24 hours in their respective cities. To see some more of the work of over 65 photographers, in 35 countries, and 5 continents, visit @24hourproject.
My 24 Hours: Seattle, WA
First of all BIG thanks to Renzo and Sam for their hard work in getting us all organized and ready to shoot for 24 hours straight. What a task! Gotta say though it definitely pushed me to shoot low light situations and forced me to figure out how I wanted to document my city. It was rough since I was the only one that I knew of from Seattle actually doing it and so big shouts to those who came out for a bit to shoot with me and especially to those who supported me doing this.
Shoutouts
Before I jump into this, I want to let ya’ll know I centered my DB (Ryan Coleman) when writing this, thus all the hyper-links (I especially like the Seattle Hot Dog Link)…if you know whats good for you as far as history lessons with a dash of humor, a dash of awesome, a dash of “OMG”, and some serious mobile and big camera photography you will go up to the top and search his articles. Check his latest with the Nirvana Series – a personal favorite! BAM, if he had a book, you best buy (get it)!
Got to shoot some night shots with @thisguyfel and he let me use his tripod for the rest of the time I was shooting. Also to close out @boohi_bronson came out with me on the last leg of the project. Also, I have to shoutout Sam (LA) and Tony (Detroit). For the most part, we were in contact every few hours on how we are doing and what our energy levels were like. Tony and I were the only ones in our city (I was in contact with) shooting so we kinda had this unsaid thing to check up on each other also. Some of Seattle isn’t safe for shooting especially at night, and for damn sure Detroit has its parts where it’s not that safe. Seattle has had a spree of cell phone muggings and I didnt want to be a part of that, Tony was my text homie to keep in contact with.
So…
The first 12 hours started with a bboy/ bgirl competition held at the HG Lodge which is a local nightspot in Seattle. Some folks I knew promoted the event and although I looked silly to some folks with my mobile next to the big camera shooters, I was still proud to be able to say I got a few shots that we’re ok during those low light situations. Not only was it dark out, but in the club I was really looking for the light situations and trying to position myself where the light was more prominent. ON top of that shit, I WAS REALLY enjoying the idea of bboys/bgirls from my city teaming up with amateurs and drinking with them and still comin up with some crazy style and power moves. LOVED IT. Between each and every round, each participant took a shot of Jack Daniels. YO, pure entertainment!
After the competition and the club closed down, I thought why not stay up on Capitol Hill and get the folks who club and then get hungry. Their drunk asses had to look for sustenance right?!?! Each corner practically had a food vendor and Seattle is known for their hot dogs with cream cheese in them. If you’re ever out on the town in Seattle and you’re hungry after a night of drunken foolery and pickin up on the opposite or same sex, get yourself a cream cheese hot dog and truly be satisfied with a night complete of fun times. @thisguyfel and I walked up and down Pine Street from Broadway to 14th and back down. Lots of folks getting their eat on. Some drunk folks macking. Some drunk folks reliving their night. Some drunk folks meeting other drunk folks to figure out what drunk folks are supposed to do after getting drunk. Yea lots of that stuff. The cops were walking their beat. The food vendors were making their money. Folks were getting their Romancing the Stone on. What a better way to say I love you and Want YOU than leaning against a stop sign whispering sweet nothings and how your about to tap that…ok…you get the point…
The First 12 Hours
We decided to leave this drunken splendor and go to a city lookout. We went up to Jose Rizal Bridge which is south of the city on its way up to Beacon Hill. We decided to try and practice our night/city shots with the slow shutter app. Some folks were able to pull off some great stuff with long exposures on the big camera and slow shutter tries to do the same for the iPhone. Unfortunately the shots didn’t come out the way we wanted.
Well this died out pretty quickly and @thisguyfel ended up leaving me and I was running the streets solo. Now I forgot to mention earlier, that I hadn’t gotten any sleep since that Friday morning waking up for work. So by this time I had already been running without sleep for 21 hours. I had to get a power nap in. So I got in the car and went to Lake Washington and posted up for an hour nap. I had to =)
I did get some sunrise shots from the lake and decided that those were my own to keep. Plan on printing them and getting them to my boss (my wife) for dealing with me missing for this weekend. She was a trooper and so I hope that not only will she be cool with a sunrise print, but not rack up too many points towards a shopping spree that I know I owe her, YEA thanks a lot RENZO AND SAM!! =)
After this I had to take the son to soccer and do the dad duties for a couple hours so there were some missed opportunities I’m sure, but did get some more kiddo portraits and action shots of my little Pele’.
The last 12 hours I ended up walking downtown in crazy zombie fasihon. I took the train in from the Southend and got dropped off in Chinatown in hopes to capture the morning elders at Hing Hay Park and morning deliveries. From there I ended up going to as many portions of the downtown area I could. Chinatown, Pioneer Square, Waterfront up to the Sculpture Park, back down into the city through Westlake and Pike Place Market, then back down into Chinatown to get ready for an afternoon meeting at Mercer Island with the Juxt partners. There were the typical Seattle tourists and street performers, very minimal Occupy Seattle coverage (which honestly really disappointed me since the day turned out to be real beautiful).
The day was sunny and in the late 50’s low 60’s. IT was great for chasing light. I’d say the bulk of my submissions for the project will probably be from during this time. My energy was pretty high considering I was really working towards almost 40 hours with only 1 hour of sleep.
The Final 12 Hours
After the Juxt partners meeting, @boohi_bronson and I went out and I had already planned what I wanted to end up doing. Seattle iconic shit. The Space Needle, the Pacific Science Center…as much of Seattle Center as I could and end it at Dicks on Broadway. There’s always people there on a Saturday night before midnight. I broke out the tripod and set up shop. These last couple to few hours of shooting is where I got the most interaction from strangers.
“Is that, is that an iPhone on that tripod?”
“I’ve never seen that done before.”
“REALLY?!?! you need a tripod for that?”
“Can I see some of your photos?”
“You did that on an iPhone?”
“That’s from an iPhone?”
“REALLY!?!?! that’s from an iPhone?!?!?”
Through all these discussions I was able to throw out some of the projects like #Fuck_Racism and #HomelessInSeattle and definitely got them to start out on the social networks and get them involved with some of the photowalks by Igers Seattle and get involved with other mobile folks…It was pretty cool to meet folks who were interested. One woman in particular is a student at Cornish is working on getting me to talk to her class. She’s a photography major and the big thing they are talking about now is how viable is the art created by mobile devices. So I gave her my contact info in return for her flipping me the bird for the Fuck Racism Project with Marco and in support of the Trayvon Martin murder.
Closed out at Dick’s, and I didn’t get no burger and fries and large coke. Got some photos, got some good conversation, then bounced.
The 24 hour project was a really cool experience. Would I do it again? Possibly. The answer would be certain if I had folks who would do it with me. That way we could individually cover the city, meet up, chat, and then go back out again. I think that’ll definitely sway me to the HELL YEA answer.
Again thanks to Renzo and Sam for organizing. They have a lot of plans for this project and We Are Juxt is in full support.
by Brad Puet | Mar 6, 2012 | Brad Puet
Borrowed Time Chapter One
Borrowed Time Chapter Two
Borrowed Time Chapter Three
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Who am I?
A white jacket lost in song. Old friends I remember but he has now forgotten in the music. Solace?
Qui suis-je?
Fear quelled in faith. The blood still drips from his hands like Longinus’s spear. Redemption?
Chi sono io?
One war traded for another. Drowning out the cries of the dead, that even deafness can’t silence. Perdition?
Quem sou eu?
Lost. His memories. His mind. Gone are the things we had to do. Paradise?
Sino Ako?
Stories told to a friend that remembers it all. A child wounded. A family to pray. A child that wounds. Fathers flailing fists. Mothers meth mouth. Two families in pain. A government that claims it cares. He will become me. Stories that shouldn’t be told, spilling secrets. My friends response. I know. Pain is short. I give him. Peace.
by Brad Puet | Feb 29, 2012 | Brad Puet
“I, like my brother, am a First Nations carver in the heritage and tradition of my people and my family who have been carving in Seattle since at least 1926. We give the John T. Williams totem pole to the City of Seattle in the hope that it will be a symbol of peace and honor for many generations.” – Rick Williams (pictured above), brother to slain First Nations wood carver John T. Williams
A man fatally shot by a Seattle police officer after being ordered to drop a knife often had difficulty hearing and understanding what was said to him, say people who knew him.
Officer Ian Birk shot and killed John T. Williams in August 2010, when Birk saw Williams holding a knife as he walked near downtown Seattle. The shooting was declared unjustified by a review board. Birk later resigned from the force.
Williams was a member of the Ditidaht First Nation, also a member nation of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth. The Ditidaht First Nation is a small, remote community on the west coast of Vancouver Island.
Williams was a celebrated, seventh-generation carver who at times sold his work to Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the Seattle waterfront.
Alex Castas, general manager of Ye Olde Curiosity Shop on the Seattle waterfront, said his shop has been buying carvings from Williams’ family for five generations, stretching back to the 1880s, when the shop used to buy from tribal members paddling up in canoes.
“It was unbelievable that this would happen in this day and age,” said Les Sam, chief of the Tseshaht First Nation in the Alberni Valley on Vancouver Island. The Tseshaht are one of 14 member nations of the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council.
The inquest process is all about putting the dead man/woman, in this case John T. Williams, on trial — a fundamental disrespect, as well as deprivation of due process. As the saying goes, “dead men tell no tales,” and in the inquest Ian Birk spread as many dubious ideas, inconsistencies, and stereotypes as he could about this dead Native man in hopes of saving his own skin. In this instance, however, the dead man does tell us all a story.
He tells us that his carving knife was never a threat — his small knife, contrary to Ian Birk, was not open. He tells us that he was not walking toward Ian Birk as Birk contended — he was shot in the side four times. Most importantly, John T. Williams reminds us of the lesson of Lord Amherst: Do not accept or even feign belief in this process; these people show absolutely no humanity or honesty when their own are threatened. Watch out for these men and women who shoot first and ask questions last — they do not have your best interests at heart.
The family and friends of William started to work on this pole about a year ago. Its design is a perched eagle, a mother raven and the figure of a woodcarver.
The event, which occurred on the eve of what would have been Williams’ 52nd birthday, followed Native tradition, with the pole carried to its final destination amid singing and dancing to drums.
“To me, it was a healing and a blessing,” said Roger Miller, 48, who traveled from his home on the Muckleshoot reservation to carry the pole. “We stopped here and there, but we had determination.”
Although Nancy Williams, sister of John, carried a black flag bearing the message, “Stop police brutality,” she said she felt as if her brother were looking down on the crowd with a big smile, “telling us we did it.”
“It’s going to be a while before there’s any healing done. Especially with the way we lost John, there’s a long ways to go yet,” said Williams, 53, of Vancouver, B.C. “But today is about peace and honor.”
So instead of writing too much about it, I wanted to use what I shot in the format I’m most comfortable, to set pace with some quotes from articles that best (I thought) described the JTW story. In no way am I saying it’s the best stuff, but for the purpose of this post, I wanted to have my story brought in by fragments of the other writers. I believe like all things that happens in our society, whether good or bad, and in this case fucked up and plain out wrong, that everything is fragmented and hidden, and pieces are given to us by those in power to keep truth from really prevailing. The end all was this memorial. It will stand now in the presence of millions of visiting people to know that Seattle is not immune to any injustice handed down by our peace keepers. Ian Birk is a murderer of John T. Williams. A family and a community lost a loved one at the hands of a man who was pompous and arrogant in his work. He has since resigned so that is one less crooked cop BUT that also means that there is a “citizen” who is out on our streets who has taken a life without just cause. I have friends who are cops. I by no means am saying that they are bad. What I am saying is the system is fundamentally screwed and that some officers are being conditioned to carry on good ol boy tradition at the sake of the people they serve…whew…let me get *off my soapbox*
February 26 the totem was lifted. The community grieved together, prayed together, danced together.
Ask my wife, I LOVE BALD EAGLES! I used to get on my brothers jet ski and go on Lake Washington by myself to go through the lake and find bald eagles on the treetops. I’ve only seen a couple in the last 10 years in the city. The day of the memorial brought tears to many who noticed above. Right before the raising of the totem pole, HIGH above, four bald eagles flew right above us. I looked to the elder I was standing next to me, he said, “The ancestors are truly with us today friend. John would be happy that his life has brought this to come about. It erases all the lies that we have been told. We are not done, but we are protected.”
I used these folks below for their insights onto the JTW murder and Memorial.
Seattle Times: Lynda V. Mapes, Amy Martinez
Seattle PI: Casey Mcnerthney
SU Spectator: Bianca Sewake
Blackfeet Nation: Gyasi Ross
Here are some more shots from the totem procession that I have posted on other networks. Hope ya’ll dig the shots and post. RIP JTW. Hit me up on Instagram/ EyeEm/ Streamzoo/ Twitter at @bradpuet or on Google + at BP Juxt or on email at [email protected]. Peace.
by Brad Puet | Jan 25, 2012 | Brad Puet
Borrowed Time: Chapter One
Another war, another time, this was me. They said there were choices, there were none. I fought for the 100%.
We returned to the land of the frail and the home of the 1%. The 1% feared, creating a language hidden in pictures
All his dreams are on the ground. He is not feared.
Here is their fear. This 1%. Their mind calls to me, before I can stop. Target eliminated.
___________________________
Stay tuned for Chapter 3
by Brad Puet | Jan 12, 2012 | Brad Puet
What’s up everyone who reads this, hopefully there’s more than just Ale, Ryan, and Jo reading this =)
Just kidding. I just wanted to post something that may or may not make sense but feel like I need to write it out, and what better way than by blogging it and soliciting ideas from you all.
So…some of ya’ll have seen my photo posts on the various photo social network apps and flickr, tumblr, etc etc…a lot of my coverage especially in the last 3 months of 2011 was about Occupy. A lot of is because of the inspiring work from a WHOLE mess of other mobile photographers locally mainly Charles (@livinlush) and Dixon (@dixonhamby) and around the world, Rich (@richnyc), Derek (@fragileglass), Sam (@whittiersam) and many others…and of course the STRONG support from Allison (@wunderali) I’m not going to delve too much into Occupy and why I felt like I needed/wanted to cover it in this post (Sam, Allison, and a few others are actually trying to generate an article that is collective regarding Occupy and our coverage of it).
But recently, no thanks to Ryan (@rcoleman), Tony (@tonydetroit), Jim (@monkone), and Luke (@agentluke), I’ve gotten bit by the abandonment bug. I’ve always admired their work in capturing these places that most of us take for granted. Buildings, houses, vehicles…any and all of it…if it is abandoned…these guys have covered it. Again, I’ve always admired it. Luke would always send me shots that he took when he and Jim would go shoot together. These cats are straight gangsta. Not only are they on top of buildings, or on wood beams that would crumble at too much weight, or climbing through rubble that would scare anyone due to danger…but they kept doing it. Luke kept sending me pictures. Process pictures of how they got there, what they did to get there, what they saw. AMAZING stuff that I was like, “WOW thats some really cool shit!” I may have shot a few things that were considered abandoned. A house here and there but never did I think of trying to break and enter this dwelling to catch the full story.
It’s funny. Let me give you a side story about it. I met Ryan on a photowalk in Seattle where we walked up and down a part of Seattle that for many others suited them for photo sharing. Ryan and I was kind of out of the loop because we didn’t have…well let me backtrack…we didn’t see the same things that they saw. They saw the beauty in the walk and their images were AMAZING. I talked to Ryan about it, and although the walk was for socializing with other mobile photographers, we didn’t feel the urge to take many shots or post them. He asked me about my shooting preferences. I asked him about his. He loved shooting abandoned things. I loved shooting occupy…things. Jokingly, I said to him, “You got abandonement issues.” Straight faced he said, “You’re a Jerk!” To this day I still don’t know if he really has abandonment issues but I didn’t want to pry to much to increase my “jerk-ness.”
Well before he left we shot up The Moran School on Bainbridge Island. It was amazing. Imagining the stories that lay within those walls. Conjuring up ideas of who walked through those hallways. Who occupied this building after it started to decay? Why was it left like this? Why would someone occupy this decrepit building? See my previous post for more of the story but for right now, I have to say, I too now have abandonment issues.
How do I see it tied into my coverage of Occupy? (Even though I said I’m going to write it in a different article…I’ll give you a heads up in this one) I LOVE capturing people. Street photography, documentary photography…whatever you want to call it…I LOVE IT. Candid, straight up NINJA style…there’s a rush. SO throw in a cause…a CAUSE…are you kidding me…I’m all over it. Occupy is a movement with a cause. It’s global. It’s gritty, boring at times, scary at times, dangerous at times. There’s anger, theres sadness, there’s despair, there’s happiness, there’s unity, there’s disarray. There’s cops and people, people and cops. Both at odds, but both representing the people. It’s craziness. There’s children, adults, teens, women, men…and although in Seattle it’s not fully represented by people of color…there is a whole mess of people involved. So…there’s a CAUSE.
Occupation means: any activity in which a person is engaged, possession, settlement, or use of land or property, the act of occupying, the state of being occupied….
Abandonment means: to leave completely and finally; forsake utterly; to give up; discontinue; withdraw from, to give up the control of…
So many correlations that come from this.
For me…it’s the feeling of OCCUPYING an ABANDONED structure…I can also say that Ryan gave me abandonment issues much like Occupy has…because at the same time…they help me find a subject matter in Occupy and in Abandonment…then left at the same time. Ryan moved to Denver and so I’m on fire trying to find new places that are abandoned and left to forget. NOT only am I looking for things to shoot and trying to document the history of it…but I’m trying to find a partner to watch my back…it’s a scary thing to go into an abandoned building sometimes…you never know whats on the other side of that door/ wall…and then…and THEN…Occupy is in hibernation for the most part because of the weather/ cold. The protesters all have been displaced. They all have been abandoned by those who were good with it when it was warmer outside.
It leaves meaning for me. If you get abandoned, go occupy something. When you occupy something, you may have abandoned something.
What do you all think? I’m interested to see what ya’ll think!
by Brad Puet | Jan 9, 2012 | Brad Puet
What if you looked into your camera roll and were shown that a string of seemingly random photos were connected by a story that reached into all those pictures. We intend to not just write a story but to show you a story from photos. One clearly visible but also hidden until you place the pictures in sequence. We urge you to look deeper and see what we see, hidden in the camera.
The collaboration begins with the photographs from 2011. There were so many images that we hope that these images will lead you on a journey through captions. Each week we will continue to develop all the necessary elements of a story of this character until we find a good ending. If you read this we hope that you will help steer the story.
BP: ya’ll know me. Storm: Storm is an accomplished author.
Enough of the talk. Let’s begin.
____________________________
Borrowed Time
Chapter One
This was a naval academy. It was more than that. It was where they taught me, created me.
It wasn’t home. My home is gone now. Dying around me.
This is what I became after all the training, after all the missions. Locked here, suspended by steel and wheels.
I came to remember my past and to recover my future. We are both older and decaying, but not dead yet. What happened to me here, what it has done for me, releases me from my prison. Borrowed time it says. Borrowed is all I need.
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Stay tuned for Chapter Two
by Brad Puet | Dec 29, 2011 | Brad Puet
Hello! Hi! Hey! Hola! What up! Howzit!
So…working on my first blog…this Juxting thing has been real fun and hope ya’ll have enjoyed it so far …2012 will bring a lot more fun and games…we look forward to continuing the build of this amazing mobile arts community with you all…
With that being said…this blog entry is ALL ABOUT the Dary Shootout Trespassing Series that Ryan Coleman (@rcoleman) and I were able to do…a week ago today…
Hopefully I can cover everything that went down in a fun and informative way…I know for damn sure that it was a pretty cool shoot…by the way…DARY stems from comments that we leave on each others shots in Instagram…DARY is short for Legendary…and boy writing this out sure makes this bromance a lot thicker…so…
Let me preempt this with a BIG shoutout and BIG thanks to Mellow L. (@threetree) who made this journey thus far HELLA fun!…my first shootout with him rivals this one with Coleman…I mean…who gets to shoot the Fremont Solstice Parade (naked folks on bikes and scooters painted up as super heroes/ heroines, sonics bball stars, zombies etc etc) with a complete stranger and build a friendship…so Mellow…if you read this homie…we’ve got lots of things to do my brotha…and since we shoutin out folks…Watson (@smlife) and Bronson (@boohi_bronson)…THASSWASSUP!
And this includes the Igers Seattle (@Igers_Seattle) crew and another couple folks in Max (@liveinawe) and Dave (@dusen) who I’ve had the priviledge of shooting this beautiful city of ours…Seattle makes for a real dope mobile shootout…so now…this leads to Coleman…
Let’s talk about Coleman…great dude, amazing shooter…before a couple photowalks ago I only knew him through his art…blown away by his shit…I mean the guy has an eye for the craziest things and makes amazing art with his edits…he definitely was one of the folks (along with @joanna) who turned me onto black and white and to be honest…it has been real hard to get away…well…this dude is leaving Seattle for Denver in a matter of days…and so we both agreed that we needed to do a shoot together…but where…hmmmm
Seattle and The Moran: Yup.
Seattle has amazing scenery…amazing skyline, the people are interesting enough to do some dope street photography…Seattle and the surrounding area has both the urban and nature rolled up in one being surrounded by the Cascades and the Olympic mountain ranges…the Puget Sound…Lake Washington…Majestic Mount Rainier…can’t ask for anything more…but of course you can…Coleman found the Moran School on Bainbridge Island…
The Moran has a rich history for the Northwest…it boasts to be one of the West Coast’s first prestigious schools with alumnis who are Nobel Prize winners, City Mayors, and some of the best Navy officers (in the 30’s it turned into a Naval Academy)…it’s the “father” of the Lakeside School in Seattle, which is one of the most expensive private schools in the United States…it’s architecture is the model for the Pacific Northwest with high ceilings, columns, and early Italian influences…in it’s heyday I bet it was one of the most beautiful buildings in the area…still the tallest building on Bainbridge Island at four stories…
The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation has been trying to negotiate with the owners to keep this historical relic in place and possibly renovate in order to have future generations enjoy it and learn its history…currently it is in a holding pattern…the owners have tried to sell it, but the one buyer turned out to not be interested in the asking price of $192K…so the owners want to demolish it…the owners are the folks at Soundcare, which is a nursing home that shares the land the Moran is on…
Enter the Shooters.
In order to get to Bainbridge Island from Seattle…the quickest way is to take a 30 min ferry across the water…the ferry is probably one of the most common shots folks take in Seattle, along with the Space Needle, Pike Place, Smith Tower etc etc…it’s a fun ride and a recommendation for all visitors and even locals who just want to get away from the city for a bit…fast forward to docking and Coleman busts out his iPhone and looks up where to go…Bainbridge Island itself has a long history…the Suquamish tribe is the first nation folks there…the island had a history during the time of Japanese internment…there’s a lot of history…
Well fast forward…Coleman and I get to the school and scope out the lay of the land…the building is fenced up with vegetation covering the south of the building, east of the building is open field and plain sight for the residential houses, and on the west side is also wide open to the nursing home…Coleman and I chose to stay on the south side obviously but couldn’t for the life of us figure out how to get in…there was a door open but it led to a concrete vault…the craziest thing…Coleman tried to go down these stairs that were only halfway down…maybe 6 -8 steps…but it literally was hanging and was real rickety…Coleman was determined…he went down there with his iPhone flashlight app and found a whole in the wall that led to a bathroom or a kitchenette…”shit, we’re here…we gotta get in here” he said to me…I was the lookout…during this time he was trying how to figure out how to get in…I was the “SHHH” man…well…I had to shhh a few times…did I mention it was surrounded by residential homes…and a path that led to a waterfront park…so folks who like to walk their dogs were able to…and to our luck…there were folks who wanted to walk their dogs…off leash…and who smelled us or something and actually came up to the fence and was barking at us…and we were only there for 10-15 minutes…either way…the owners of the dog called the dogs back…and when I turned to tell Coleman we’re good…this ninja of a photographer was inside…knocking on windows…tapping on walls…ended up getting into this huge auditorium theatre…he found a window that wasn’t nailed shut…and we spend freakin 20-25 minutes trying to jack this thing up so I can get in…Coleman is able to fit into the space we were able to push up…but for my sexy ass…I needed a few more inches to get in…once we get there…I skiddadle through the window and as soon as I get up…GLORIOUS shooter paradise…we give each other pounds and a hug and commenced our shooting tirade…
The Moran and For Those With Abandonment Issues.
The auditorium seats about 250 folks…there are chairs and sofas laid out all over the place…an organ against the wall…TV kicked in, sits in the middle of the room…despite the garbage and trash strewn out…the auditorium is pretty awesome…high ceilings, exposed rafters, ceiling high windows…you can really feel the history as I’m sure there were spirits that were watching over us…thinking to themselves…look at these fools…anyways…after the pounds and hugs…Coleman is shooting…I barely caught my breath and he was already taking a shot of a recliner on the stage…and he’s in Coleman fashion…angles, angles, angles…me on the other hand…I was still trying to figure out where I was, gather my bearings and load up the weaponry… Native camera on, check. Horizontal tilt, check. Escape route, YIKES. One way in, one way out…I remember telling myself…if something/ someone was to come down these halls and it wasn’t Coleman…I would do like the cartoons and bust through the walls…no matter what floor…so I told myself this…and proceeded through the hallways…first hallway led to a stairwell that was pretty rickety…the railing was definitely not stable and if leaned upon would have given way…the walls were falling apart…the walls were rotted out and after 50 years of neglect…you can imagine that this building was ready to be torn down…sad to say…but it just wasn’t safe…at all…so what the hell…
Coleman and I ran through this MFer like it was our own little playground…each floor had its own character…2nd floor had a loft that over looked the auditorium which was cool, but wasn’t really something that I think Coleman and I really cared for…3rd floor and it got much better…if ya’ll read through some of our captions on the shots on IG…you would have read…”lots of windows, awesome light, wheelchair graveyard, dilapidated walls, broken windows, boarded up bathrooms…well that’s the 3rd floor…I’d say there were a lot of our shots taken here, as it just had a lot of things to shoot…there was a room on this floor, where there seemed to have a past inhabitant…a wheelchair sat in the middle of this huge room…sleeping bags on top of each other, and on top of those bags…dozens of motorcycle magazines…with bare skinned, lace ridden women…some who were obviously meant to grace the pages of a men’s magazine…then others…eh not so much…but I wasn’t looking…too much…hahaha…either way…I hear Coleman and he wasn’t as happy with this floor as me…at the end of the hallway was a room FULL of wheelchairs…like…storage unit style…but it looked to have newer ones…well new ones like the 70’s and other chairs that weren’t so new…I loved it because I read about it in some of the articles I ran across…the nursing home next door would put these chairs of folks who got real sick and/or passed away in this building…now why they have brought it up to the 3rd floor I have no clue…there weren’t no elevators…so I didn’t know how they got all of those wheelchairs up without someone having to be real pissed off at their bosses…move to the 4th floor…the top floor…Coleman is already up here and he tells me that to be weary because maybe the inhabitant didn’t really care for women…but left some rude graffiti all over the rooms up on this floor…some real sexual messed up-ness…one room had a door that read, “this is the room where I rape, knock before entering”…yup…told you real rude…and the graffiti and drawings were real effed up…but…this floor had the hallway that Coleman really wanted to shoot…on his feed you can see the shot…amazing…and he did the hallway real justice…
The Return.
The one thing I forgot to mention up top is that we actually was on a timeline…I had to be back to pick up the kiddo…and Coleman had to make sure that his parking was paid off…even had a homie of his go and check and maybe add more money in…as in a lot of the metropolitan cities in the US…parking is expensive…but even more expensive are the tickets that come…so in our rush back to the city…Coleman and I got to spend some quality bromance time…which was good…which is some of the reason why Juxt is in place…the getting to know the artist/ photographer is just as important as the getting to know and admiring the art…the beauty of what we are able to do in these social networks is share a piece of ourselves in hopes that folks who are like-minded and even those who are not like-minded get to communicate and dialogue despite language, culture and any other social barriers that may be placed before us…
Mr. Ryan Coleman and I got to share in story, in art process, in crime…literally…and the best part of it all…we got to share it with you all…so my new found bro is moving to Denver…Seattle is going to lose one of its amazing mobile artists…Denver gets to add Coleman and his boss to their citizenship…which means if ever I’m in Denver…I’ve got someone to shoot with…and someone who I can shoot the shit with…
Sending you off bro…at least the money you make at the gallery show next week can go to my pocket…WORD UP!!! =) ALSO…still gotta set you up with Mikey and Rich…upon your return brother!
Adios. Bye. Bam. Salud. Cheers.
