Silver Manhattan is a narrative of someone who has never stopped creating, from his boyhood days taking the subway from Queens to St. Marks Place, to the present day following a spinal stroke. Life is messy, loss is devastating, and through it all, every song and every show is part of a story that is ever unfolding, ever defying the odds.
•••
It was a big deal to me, getting to do this shoot with Jesse. The team’s “ask” was to present the chair clearly. But I know that it’s gotta be hard to be confronted with the stark reality in the form of a photo. I’d spent the last 1.5 years trying to shoot more tightly, interpreting spoken and unspoken cues to avoid the chair or walker in the frame. It wasn’t necessarily how I wanted to shoot from a visual arts standpoint, but I couldn’t bear the thought of adding to a friend’s pain.
I really hope that the photos we made, two of which I’m sharing today, begin to tell a story of both/and, not either/or. You can both use a chair and be a formidable frontperson. You can be both changed and undiminished. The person I know today is an even stronger and deeper soul than the (already exemplary) person I met some years ago.
It was so fun to bring fam to the final Gramercy Theatre show, and to see Lucinda Williams and Jim Jarmusch among the luminous faces of Jesse’s friends and fans. I’m looking forward to the next chapter at Bowery Palace. Tickets are on sale now. Link in the usual place.
Heartfelt thank-yous to
@arktype for trusting me with this shoot, to
@meredithtruax for the gear and crash course, to
@harry_greenberger and
@trashyfairytale who were great collaborators, to
@getittogetherparisi and
@cat_popper for advocating for me and giving me pep talks, and to
@jesse_malin , of course and always, for his boundless heart and determination and artistry.
