After The Disconnect

There is this unhealthy habit I have developed over the years of becoming extremely passionate about something for a period of time and then suddenly and unexpectedly becoming disinterested in the subject all together. The speed at which the disconnect comes is in itself very frightening.

The latest “disconnect” I have experienced and been a bit saddened by is from photography. Its seems like within the period of a few days (although I’m sure it had been in the works for a few months) I went from being extremely dedicated and overjoyed by the stories I told and the pictures I shot too having zero desire to even pick up my camera.

I have thought about the many reasons that may have led to this most recent disconnect and they range from personal struggles to the fear that to move any further into photojournalism would have meant working for a newspaper or starting my own business, two things which I have no desire to do.

But as recently as yesterday I started thinking about picking my camera back up (after a 2 month break) and finishing the story about Jeff’s battle with cancer or at the very least just taking some pictures of the last days of a fading summer in the city of Seattle.

Until that time comes, I wanted to share a couple of photos from the last day I spent with Jeff. In these shots he was preparing to go to his friend Johns house (his A.A. sponsor) for the first sober barbecue he has been to in many years. There is a shot of Jeff shaving (he loves looking “sharp”) and another of him rolling his own cigarettes.

I love watching the guys at the Bread of Life Mission roll their own cigarettes, it seems more like an art form than a habit.