Monday, June 23, 2008

Wolfman






Wolfman Smoking
City Center Motel
Provo, UT
April 2008

Just before dusk, I found Wolfman pacing in the parking lot of the City Center Motel chain smoking cigarettes. I told him he looked intense smoking cigarettes, and he said he was intense about everything he did. I said I could relate to that, about cigarettes and everything else.

Throughout the night and even the next morning, Wolfman was still pacing and smoking in the parking lot. His girlfriend was arguing with him from her doorway on the balcony of the second floor of the motel, and it was like a play, except it was real. The argument kept Wolfman in orbit around the girlfriend. He couldn't leave the parking lot and yet he couldn't return to their room upstairs. I thought about how often I had been in his shoes, lighting more cigarettes because what else was there to do.

He seemed to welcome the camera as a distraction - a validation of his plight.

2 comments:

Katherine Syroboyarsky said...

I love the way you chose to show these as a trio. It gives me a sense of stop-motion. I keep looking at them one after another, hearing your narrative in my head.

Paul Pincus said...

lighting more cigarettes because what else was there to do.

your line above just hit me...in a severe way.

lovely portraits.