Something tells me that this scene and others, won’t be on CNN and won’t get Hillary’s attention. Not even Bernie will want to get behind these scenes. The guy on the far left called out to me after I made the photo. He said, “yo, who you making pictures of?” I said, I’m working the streets like I been doing for 45 years and I will continue. Then he smiles and said, “Iraq” I nodded and he said, “Seeya ’round …Man on the Street.”

I flashed back to 1973  when Bill called me The Man on the Street. My friend Paul called me The Philly Photographer. Ding called me The Street Shooter. I guess after a while it all stuck and I kinda wear it like I wear my Nam Vet hat and my POW/MIA hat.

So I feel kinda defensive with all these wanna be human beings or another name would be, Politicians walking around and thinking they are some special person. I was at the Dilworth Plaza and the water was dancing and the kids are playing and there was this group of well dressed wanna be humans standing and watching the kids. I was about to make a photo when all the sudden, a white woman says to the group, “look at all the Ethnic children all playing together. Remarkable.” … I messed up, see. If I had a greasy gooey cheese steak, I’d rub it on all there fancy dancy suites and dresses,and say, courtesy of the ethnic people of Philly… but in all actuality, I am very aware that my actions at all times are under the microscope and aimed at Veterans. So I don’t do stuff like rub cheese steaks on politicians, instead, I give the ethnic homeless some money so they can buy toilet paper.

I gotta tell ya…. I believe in the right of free speech and all that good stuff. So I maintain my cool when I see someone displaying the flag upside down. It means Under Duress! I don’t like to see it like this but he has the right just as I have the right to never, ever lower my flag to half mast. President Obama could not get me to do it. So I just made a photo and he was nervous as he saw my hat. The he walked to me and hugged me and said. “Thanks for your service”…. I knew at that very moment that I made the right decision by not shoving the pole up his pooper.

I started a body of work many years ago titled, “In Search Of”. The idea is to work on Identity and discovering The Self. Ya know how a writer does a book or journal? Well they start with an idea and allow it to grow and to OFFER direction. What that really means is, to get goal orientated. Photographers kinda get lost out there because it’s easier for the viewer or reader to deal with photos rather then words. So photographers get messed up on the viewer’s end. They start to think that getting a response from others is more important then the photographic story of their life.

For instance, the photo above….it’s about identity. I could have easily placed the woman’s face on the left in the frame but the idea for me is the blank of identity and then the face inside. It’s all metaphor and I don’t really care who likes it. It’s a photo I made in a total conscious state. For me, it’s part of the mystery of my life. I’ll never finish it, like the unwritten novel but I always work on it.

There are so many themes to work on that it’s mind boggling. I mean I have many thru the years and maybe I don’t actively work on any particular one at any particular time but they come and go like breaths of fresh air. I get so intoxicated with life and photographing it that sometimes, I can’t see the buses from the motorcycles. I know this and I say this proudly, I am a photographer.. I shoot life as I experience it and I breathe photography and cherish life .

I also hate politicians and the shit they bring to my Beloved Philadelphia.

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