I watched these two wash back up on the shores of life and experience the rebirth that occasionally comes after great destruction. They were broken. Out of ideas. Finding themselves for the first time and in the early days just struggling to make it through the day with sobriety and a shred of hope still intact. Got to hold their hands and let them know it could and would pass if the were willing to do some internal work. Years passed for them and they have become fine human beings that not only are good within but also live accordingly. I see them take those gifts that came wrapped in pain and share them with the rest of the world. For all who are broken and whose human/living problems manifests in fatal ways, i see few actually receive life's gifts and really awaken. So we extend ourselves to all with no expectation of result but goddamnit, ring the bell and say hallelujah when good results come. Today i got to be there and see them come. The life they survived to experience and the literal life they have created. I damn near passed out when i heard Lillian's first cries and you would have thought it was my child being born. Nothing will ever compare to the product of life's longing for itself.

Jack Unruh
Dallas, Tx.
May 2012

Got to go visit Jack in his studio recently. Twice actually. He's an illustrator whose work i had seen and was familiar with long before i met him. If there's a magazine on your coffee table there's a pretty good chance his work has been in it. We visited a little about this and that and the part i like is how he still sees someone's face and instantly his mind goes to wanting to capture them. He told me in so many words to keep doing the same and it would all work out. You can see more of his work at the link below. Enjoy.

http://www.jackunruh.com

I just returned from Costa Rica where i spent 5 days on a shoot there with my biggest client. After the shoot wrapped i headed to San Jose and stayed for 18 hours, focusing on the sex industry that is fueled largely by tourism and is also legal there. The following is some of what i saw and experienced. As someone who has often struggled with being a good man to women, selfish relationships and also as a father of of two young ladies, this experience meant a lot to me. I will continue on this series when i can, expanding to other areas of the problem and the solution as well.

Victor aka Viola, 18 year old worker who has been on the street for 4 years.

Sophia, 26 years old and the hardest of them all.

Street scenes.

Carol, a worker who is 4 months pregnant.

Jane Doe, a 26 year old worker in the sex industry who wished to remain nameless and faceless.

Sexism exists in each country only in another guise.

Worry.

Ashley, 20 year old worker and crack addict from Colombia.

Street scenes.

Sophia, 26 years old and the hardest of them all.

Street scenes.

This man was arrested for assaulting a prostitute.

Ashley, 20 year old worker and crack addict from Colombia.

Street scenes.

Many nightclubs in San Jose have hourly room rates in adjoining rooms.

Carol, a worker who is 4 months pregnant.

Maria, an ex-worker who no longer is able to make a living in the trade and relies on money from strangers.

Street scenes.

Sophia, 26 years old and the hardest of them all.

Empty rooms.

Rubbish.

Jane Doe, a 26 year old worker in the sex industry who wished to remain nameless and faceless.

Street scenes.

Victor aka Viola, 18 year old worker who has been on the street for 4 years.

Ashley, 20 year old worker and crack addict from Colombia.

Missing.

Jane Doe, a 26 year old worker in the sex industry who wished to remain faceless and nameless.

Amy Sedaris
Dallas, Tx.
April 2012

James Leavelle
Garland, Tx.
April 2012

James is best known for being handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald when Jack Ruby gunned him down back in '63. You've surely seen him before in that iconic photograph wearing a white suit and standing next to Oswald right after the shot was fired. A lot can happen in an eight of a second. Along with that claim to fame he also survived Pearl Harbor and was in law enforcement for most of his adult life. I went and visited with he and his wife yesterday morning in their home and heard some stories. He's 91 and has a few. The JFK assassination has been popping up everywhere in my world the last week. Films, conversations heard, facebook threads, other artists' work, graffiti on the sidewalk... it's pretty weird. I can't shake the curiosity and the more i hear and learn the more worked up i get. Even a modest guy armed with a little information would be discontent with the narrow and incomplete explanations our government provides us on occasions like that and the real shame is that we as people allow it. That's another conversation for another day. Anyway, James said that after Bob Jackson won that Pulitzer for the famed photograph he promised James a signed copy which he finally delivered to him just last year, only 48 years later. He said he thought about waiting that long before he sent a thank you card but that he knew he didn't have that much time left. Out of everything i heard, that's the thing i heard the most.
P.S. One of the last photographers that interviewed and shot James got shot back at. James was holding a replica of the gun that shot Oswald which was supposed to be empty but fired off a round and caught the guy in the arm. Hell.

Stefani C. Gassiot
Spahn Ranch, Ca.
April 2012

A few images from our recent visit with our friend, Tachowa Covington in Los Angeles. The film featuring him and his story, which the making of has become such a huge part of so many people's lives the past few years, is nearing completion and we look forward to sharing it with you all when life allows.

Tornadoes touched down throughout North Texas yesterday. I was chasing one out near Lancaster but couldn't quite get to it. I have always wanted to see one and photograph it but there must be an art to getting there that i have yet to figure out. I ended up visiting a neighborhood in Lancaster that got pretty torn up and walked through the neighborhood shooting and helping people where i could. The general consensus of those i spoke with was one of gratitude to be alive and that most of what was lost was replaceable. It is sobering and makes me realize that the good and bad things that shape my life are on their way. I don't get to choose what day they get here. They are just coming.

Dr. Michael Corris
Professor and Chair of  Meadows School of the Arts at SMU
Dallas, Tx.
March 2012

http://artsandculturentx.com/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-art-world/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Corris

Ashley Myrick
Dallas, Tx.
March 2012

A few of these images will likely be part of an ongoing series i am working in about the sex and love industry. This week i got to spend a late night with DPD, the Sheriffs Dept., New Life and Citizen Give this week during their Prostitution Diversion Initiative. Over the course of one night, there are mass arrests and the workers are brought to a location where they are offered treatment, medical care and counsel as an alternative to incarceration. I'm very thankful for humanizing efforts like these that give our lost sisters and brothers a chance to shift when they are ready.

Shana Alexander
Dallas, Tx.
March 2012

Kirk and Joyce Fuller With Hounddog
Emory, Tx.
March 2012

Best part of the birthday field trip was when Natalie and Hal spotted "an old guy in a wheelchair building his house." We stopped and walked over to talk with Kirk who turned out to be 89. His movements and words were slow but talking to him revealed he is still sharp enough. He told us that their last house had burned down and that they had started with a shed and were building an addition to it. He has 10 children but most of them are in New York so he is just plugging away with it on his own. We got to help him screw down an outer wall that was too high up and then squared off a window and got it in there nice and tight. He could use some more help and if any of you have a free day and wanna take a ride, message me and i can at the least pass his address to you. When we had to get back on the road we asked if there was any last thing that we could help him with that might be too tough or high for him later. He said yeah and after a second smiled a little and told me to get those rafters up. It's gonna be another good year.

Anna-Sophia Van Zweden
Dallas, Tx.
March 2012

After exchanging emails for the past year Anna and i finally got to visit in her home away from home yesterday. She told me briefly about her life in between the states and the Netherlands, turned me on to Brazilian jazz and Kings Of Convenience and shared some of the benefit work she has done with MTVReDefine that benefits the MTV Staying Alive foundation. It was easy visiting and she photographed really naturally and well. I also got to meet her father and watch a few videos with him about lions and how they interact with humans in their natural element. Listening to them talk in Dutch was really fascinating to me, being that i'm a fella from Texas and taken in by such things. All good times and i think we will do this again as the days and years pass.

Kam, Owner Of Kwik Stop

Kaitlyn Terrell At The Wheel

Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge

Travis Daniels, Southern Gent

Cirque Du Soleil Rehearsal

Casey Hess, Lightning Thief

Another Roadside Attraction

Robert Wilonsky's Last Week At Dallas Observer

Phoenix, A Paper Bird and Three Clay Dogs

Jason At Dusk

Silly Love Songs

Mike At Home

Coming Soon

Helpers On The Road

Directory/Self Portrait

Eddie, Stuart and Sally Glass On Moving Day

The Loneliest Number

Courtney Snowden On Her Way To Treatment

Charles, The Man Of Steel

Delays In Dallas

Caree', Cambria and Bubba On Valentine's Day

Sally Glass and Johnny Rea

Evan Horn Double Exposure

My Father, Harold Dean Hollingsworth II

Paul Milano's Duality

Illumination

The Cain Family
Cumby, Texas
March 2012

They had two pickups, one towing a flatbed and the other a camper and one of the trucks was giving the other a jump when we pulled into the gas station. They were piled high and full with everything you would take with you to set out to somewhere new. Furniture, toys, tools, clothes, dogs and three children that i could see, all headed to Missouri and i think they were from Plainview or somewhere. Right away they reminded me of Grapes Of Wrath. Urgent, quiet and stout as hell. They said i could photograph them if i would hurry and just sat there pretty quiet while i did. The guy had a face i could never forget and had a good share of tattoos that let me know he had done some things. The woman driving looked like an older and weathered version of a girl i went to school with. The little girl in the back was a cute little ginger baby with really big and curious eyes that left you wondering what those eyes would see in her lifetime. After i took a few shots, the husband stuck his finger out for his wife. Then they packed up, closed the hoods and took off. I hope i get to see them again someday.

Matthew Dallas Vela and His Alter Ego, Onya Stereo
Dallas, Tx.
February 2012

I shot Matthew's tranformation into Onya last week for an upcoming feature that will appear in two publications and am grateful that Rachel Van Horn included me in this assignment. His journey has been an interesting one and i look forward to the story hitting the digital and printing press so i can share more with you.