Both the front and back cover photos were found on a long-forgotten roll of film from 2002? 2003?  The roll was buried in the bottom of a camera bag that I used to use back in high school.  I developed it when I found it this spring, not knowing what would be on it.  I was rewarded with these gems. The cover is my friend Mike Kelso from ATL jumping off a diving board at Lake Martin in Alabama.  I was beneath him in an inflatable raft shooting with my dad’s Canon AE-1.  We were just kids!  I like it because it looks like he’s jumping into the abyss. On the back cover, I put this delightful pic of my younger brother throwing up the ‘horns. I think he has braces. Looking at pictures of him makes me feel more like a human being.

I drew the penisboat comic when my fiancee and I were in Miami on a sailing trip in 2014-2015. There were a lot of muscle-dummies in massively loud boats, often times all alone, spending lots of money on fuel and gold speckle paint to garner attention. We were on a sailboat, and I had grown tired of them. The photo on the opposing page is clearly Chicago – this fountain/art installation is probably one of the top 10 most photographed things in that city (after the bean…), but I didn’t care. The kids playing alongside the wall of water made for a special moment, and I’d spend another afternoon shooting pictures here if/when I go back.

Chihuahua on a dolly. Taken at the Goat Farm Arts Center in Atlanta. Homeboy just wanted a ride and his owner obliged.

I tried 3 times to make this map look cohesive/easy to follow.  Finally, on the last time, I said “Fuck it. It’s kind of supposed to look like a dumb spiderweb anyways”.

Taking quotes from the rant and featuring them in bold made me feel like a GQ layout editor guy (with a gluestick).

This is the only photo that I had previously posted on the blog before putting it in the issue.  It’s the first photo that I’d really liked in a while. I was driving through Ohio City and saw there was some rally going on (aka a dude with a megaphone).  I’d just been given a 1950’s Leica rangefinder (another story), and wanted to test it out to see if it worked.  I parked illegally, walked right up to to this lady and her kid just as she was giving him this sign to hold.  The kid had no idea what it meant, or what the point of the rally was.  I got in there, shot this photo, walked back to my car, and left. I was proud of how it turned out and that I prioritized capturing the moment.

This is in Chicago. I think we were waiting for an Uber. I really like the collar of her jean jacket – perfect amount of fray.

This photo does no justice to this scene. It’s one of the first times I thought to myself “Shit, I wish I was shooting color film!”. We were in a 7-11 at 1am in Chicago, and there was this disgusting looking doughnut with a blue gummy shark on top and blue sprinkles. We were half-cut, strolling home from the bar and joking with the 7-11 guy about how disgusting it looked. He said it was for shark week, and if we ate it, he’d give it to us for free. My friend Brett was bold enough to cut it up in to quarters and have the first bite. Based on the look on his face, everyone else decided it was a bad idea, and didn’t live up to their share of the bargain. He was a good sport. So yeah, this picture sucks, but the moment was special.