TBow

MY code of street photography:  If you grace me with your image and need bus fare or a sandwich... I will rejoice in giving back to you.  It's MY code, as many feel by helping subjects you somehow "dirty" the art and encourage begging.  

Two Bottles of Water

Kenny told me, "On the streets you need a Guardian Angel and Michael Jackson is mine."  

If you really want to know life on the streets, get close up and discover something wonderful.  Put away your telephoto lens.  

5 Dollars for a "Tips and Toes" Care Kit.  

What's it like being homeless on the Streets of New York City?  Robert told me, "There's always a bright side."  

I like wandering the streets cause at heart... I'm a Street Rat.  

I was told about Elvis Rule #1:  We DON"T call them Elvis Impersonators... We DO call them Elvis Tribute Artists.  

I met Melody outside a coffee shop in Hollywood, CA.  She was smearing raw butter on her face and told me it was for sun protection. I learned about her life on the streets and bought her some coffee.  When I left she insisted I take a small baseball bat from her as a present.    

It was a quiet chance meeting.  No conversation was had, 10 seconds for a photo.... peace and love.  

What If God were one of us? 

You can often find Guitar Nancy hanging around LA's Downtown Central Market.  I put a dollar in her open guitar case.  Well worth the outlandish, outer-space-ish conversation we enjoyed.  

Three Dollars and Pizza 

"Considering our history, I can think of nothing more American than an immigrant."  Conor Oberst 

3 dollars and a bottle of water.  

My joy is to spend the rest of my life making images with people who are often considered to be outside the boundaries of social acceptability.  

One second after this shot, the Carnival "Barker" started screaming at me for money.  Learn to move quickly on the street, get the shot, then become invisible.  

There is great beauty in an old woman with a young heart.   

Street photography's fun because when done right, there's always a small element of danger.  

"We must always guard and cherish our inner Superheroes."   

Five Dollars and Pizza

"And we'll never be royals, royals... it don't run in our blood.  That kind of luxe just ain't for us, we crave a different kind of buzz."  Lorde

"I really believe there are things nobody would see if I didn't photograph them."  Diane Arbus 

3 Dollars and a Sandwich

How does one photograph poverty?  I mean it's so overdone and it's really hard to get a great shot, a unique shot that honors the subjects as well as the legacy poverty images of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans and Mary Ellen Mark.  On the street, Dot and Bernard reached out to me for help.... and that's how this image came to be.

"One must give himself completely to his art and not hold back.  Throw caution to the wind.  Embrace the muse.  Make love to your art."  Harley King 

Hearts can be broken .... with nary a word spoken.  

"From the wreck of time I sing out to the next generation of lovers and the next."  Theodore Decker

I don't know everyone's story... but I want to know... 

"And I shall watch the ferry boats, and they'll get high on a bluer ocean against tomorrow's sky.  And I will never grow so old again and I will walk and talk in gardens all wet with rain."  Van Morrison 

"Light makes photography.  Embrace light.  Admire it.  Love it.  But above all, know light.  Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography."  George Eastman

Wandering the streets with a camera is far and away my most favorite pastime.  A pastime that actually became an obsession long ago. Joy.   

They had partied all night long.  I took this photo the following morning inside Vesuvio, a famous San Francisco Bar where Jack Kerouac and his "Beat Generation" Friends used to hang out.  I was reminded of a younger me, when I was quite the party animal myself.  

Shot under a blinking red 200 ft. tall sign...

"The worst thing about being a tourist is having other tourists recognize you as a tourist."  Russell Baker 

"Be so good they can't ignore you."  Steve Martin 

"Life is a free circus.  All you have to do is pay attention." Bill Copeland

He told me that he has devoted his life to Paul Stanley of the rock band KISS.  He also made me promise that I would tell everyone who views this image:  This is NOT the real Paul Stanley.    

"Work is about a search for daily meaning as well as daily bread, for recognition as well as cash, for astonishment rather than torpor.  In short, for a sort of life rather than a Monday through Friday sort of dying."  Studs Terkel 

We met on the streets of New Orleans ..... he told me, "Channeling the Queen is hard work but I find helping with policy decisions can be very rewarding."  

I met him on Lincoln Ave in Miami.  He said he was a Chef in a restaurant.... he also told me that Juliana had broken his heart.  

7am Menu.  I brought the banana and breakfast bar. Smitty's having his regular pint of cheap whiskey and Smitty Jr. is having a Baby Ruth candy bar.  I don't know what the guy in the background had for breakfast, he muttered a few words and walked away.  

I'm often asked, "Where do you find all these odd people?"  Well, it seems to me like odd people are always where I am.