These photos were shot over the fall of 2006 in Middletown, Connecticut. In general, I asked people whether I could take their portrait, usually with a tripod. I usually shot with two cameras, one medium format camera and a smaller 35mm camera to take candids in between. All were developed and printed in a traditional B&W darkroom.
For some of the shots, I had to do very little artistically. For example, the portrait of Mia sitting down with a cigarette and the two portraits of Jeff are mostly technical portraits. Mia told me she used to be a model, and appeared slightly spaced out (for whatever reason...) when I tried to talk to her. Jeff at first refused to allow me to take a picture of him, even as we chatted for about twenty minutes about life, his unemployment and accident over twenty years ago. Only when I realized I had a couple of portraits I had taken of other people, and showed them to him, did he finally agree.
For the Lama, I ran into him one day on the street as he was walking to the bank. He offered me his business card with two addresses, one in Middletown, CT and the other in the Tibetan exile community in Dharamsala, India. Phone numbers were given for both locations. He is a Tibetan lama with little English ability and when he gave his Dharma talk he spoke through an American interpreter who sat next to but below him. I arrived early to take pictures, and stayed after as he gave his talk.
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