Freddy Made Me Do It

Richard Price and Konica C35

Greetings friends,

Normally I try not to clog your inbox. I only post when I feel like I’ve got something worth sharing—which is my subtle way of admitting I’m jealous of those of you who post regularly and still manage to be smart, funny, and creatively generous. And let’s not even talk about the people engaged in wild, brain-melting creative collaborations. I’m not that disciplined. Or that organized. Or that caffeinated.

But every now and then, shit happens and life hands you something that demands to be shared. In this case: a book. A really, good one.

Lazarus Man, by Richard Price, one of my all-time favorite writers. He’s the mind behind The Wanderers, Clockers, Freedomland, Lush Life, The Whites—and also the screenwriter of The Color of Money, Life Lessons (Scorsese’s segment from New York Stories—if you haven’t seen it, fix that), Sea of Love, The Wire, The Night Of, The Outsider. In short: a man of crime, grit, and mind-blowingly good dialogue.

Lazarus Man centers on the aftermath of a deadly five-story tenement collapse in East Harlem that kills several people and unleashes chaos. Price isn’t too concerned with traditional plot; he’s more interested in how the disaster ripples through the lives of several interconnected neighborhood characters and their personal struggles. One of them is Felix Pearl, a young photographer who’s recently moved to Harlem.

See where I’m going with this, fellow snappers?

So there I am (yesterday), wedged into a packed subway car stuck between stations, with no AC and two sprawling homeless passengers lost in their own aromatic bliss, reading a chapter that hit me right in the photobone. It was sharp, beautiful, and deeply observant—and I thought, I have to share this. (The passage, not the photobone. That stays with me.)

Right on cue, Freddy chimes in:

“Ugh. Oversharing again. If you’re gonna post someone else’s text, at least include one of your own photos. That B&W roll you just developed—who are you saving it for? Allah?”

Freddy is an asshole. But he’s not always wrong.

So here it is: a paragraph from Lazarus Man, paired with some black-and-white shots I took with my Konica C35 (Ilford HP5 Plus 400) just a few days ago.

Enjoy—or ignore. Either way, thanks for letting me drop into your inbox every once in a while.

Thanks for reading and being a subscriber.

‘Til next time.
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