I was a photographer before I had a camera.
I saw images that I knew would be intriguing photos. I thought in photos. Sometimes I wish I had a camera or I wish I could go back and be myself with a camera. I imagine taking lots of photos of everything. It was so different then. I went to a Catholic school, houses in the neighborhood were also corner stores, there was a fruit vendor who had a sing-song call as pushed his cart in the morning, “Cherr -err -err -ries, straw-aw-aw berries” as he pushed a cart in the morning” — I am not making this up. The neighborhood was like this. It did not last long, house corner stores closed, the parochial schools closed, and the fruit vendor was gone a year after I first heard him. I saw it all and they are photos in my head.
My father had a Polaroid that I used sometimes. I love analog processes, holding a print feels good, it’s a bit like holding a book, a one-page book. Creating prints and working in the darkroom is meditative and exciting at the same time.