andrew . 24 years old / denver . colorado
while spending some time at a friend's place, i decided to check out a new neighborhood in search of the day's stranger. i walked east on colfax for a number of blocks, but the streets were mostly vacant (oh sundays...), adding to the already desolate feeling of that end of town. i turned around when it appeared that the only thing i would accomplish if i kept going would be to get further away. i took the other side of the street, in the sun, for the blocks back west and when i came to my starting point, i still had found no stranger to photograph.
i ended up near "the tattered cover" bookstore and decided to go inside for a minute and check up on a magazine. it wasn't there, so i made my way outside again before i fell victim to making purchases i couldn't afford. i exited through a different doorway than i had entered and spotted a gentleman sitting at a table by himself, reading. i interrupted him, which he made more obvious by not looking away from the page he was reading while i spoke to him. he eventually looked at me long enough to decline.
about three seconds later, i saw a younger guy sitting on a stone wall. he looked so friendly. and so familiar. not in the sense that i had seen him before or that we knew each other, but in the sense of his being my peer. in being part of the same world at the same time and maybe even experiencing a lot of the same things. i guess i could have just described him to you as looking like a nice guy, but i felt like diving in a little deeper.
he was immediately receptive when i told him what i was doing. andrew and i introduced ourselves and we dove into a somewhat lengthy conversation. i learned that he moved out here to denver from seattle only a few months ago. he came here for a job and is now working as a bank investigator. he equated it to the OSHA of banks - he goes to different branches throughout the state and makes sure they are not engaging in any funny business. he makes sure that the monies they are lending are at fair interest rates and there is actually money there to back the loans in the first place and other such things. andrew said he never anticipated working for the government, but is finding it enjoyable. he's doing something seemingly good, so i suppose it doesn't really matter who it is for, right?
andrew misses the west coast and seattle's proximity to two different mountain ranges. he is enjoying his time here, though. he had just come from spending some time in the sun (it was 80 degrees today!) at cheesman park and then picked up some vinyl records at "twist & shout". it turned out that he bought three albums that i also like. as we neared the end of our conversation, he pulled out his first camera which he recently acquired from ebay. he let me take a peek at it and i saw that it was an older film canon in beautiful shape. andrew loaded his first roll of film in it this morning and was excited to being using it.
we shared quite a few good minutes together and then parted ways. i walked away feeling how interesting it was that he works as a bank investigator while i am spending most of my time on a project that doesn't pay, but, at the end of the day, we ride similar bikes and listen to similar music and wear similar clothes and hang out at similar spots and enjoy similar hobbies. andrew was impressed at the timing of our meeting and the fact that it happened at all. i think about that every day. about the serendipity and interconnectivity of so much that happens. so so so much.
thanks a lot, andrew!
while spending some time at a friend's place, i decided to check out a new neighborhood in search of the day's stranger. i walked east on colfax for a number of blocks, but the streets were mostly vacant (oh sundays...), adding to the already desolate feeling of that end of town. i turned around when it appeared that the only thing i would accomplish if i kept going would be to get further away. i took the other side of the street, in the sun, for the blocks back west and when i came to my starting point, i still had found no stranger to photograph.
i ended up near "the tattered cover" bookstore and decided to go inside for a minute and check up on a magazine. it wasn't there, so i made my way outside again before i fell victim to making purchases i couldn't afford. i exited through a different doorway than i had entered and spotted a gentleman sitting at a table by himself, reading. i interrupted him, which he made more obvious by not looking away from the page he was reading while i spoke to him. he eventually looked at me long enough to decline.
about three seconds later, i saw a younger guy sitting on a stone wall. he looked so friendly. and so familiar. not in the sense that i had seen him before or that we knew each other, but in the sense of his being my peer. in being part of the same world at the same time and maybe even experiencing a lot of the same things. i guess i could have just described him to you as looking like a nice guy, but i felt like diving in a little deeper.
he was immediately receptive when i told him what i was doing. andrew and i introduced ourselves and we dove into a somewhat lengthy conversation. i learned that he moved out here to denver from seattle only a few months ago. he came here for a job and is now working as a bank investigator. he equated it to the OSHA of banks - he goes to different branches throughout the state and makes sure they are not engaging in any funny business. he makes sure that the monies they are lending are at fair interest rates and there is actually money there to back the loans in the first place and other such things. andrew said he never anticipated working for the government, but is finding it enjoyable. he's doing something seemingly good, so i suppose it doesn't really matter who it is for, right?
andrew misses the west coast and seattle's proximity to two different mountain ranges. he is enjoying his time here, though. he had just come from spending some time in the sun (it was 80 degrees today!) at cheesman park and then picked up some vinyl records at "twist & shout". it turned out that he bought three albums that i also like. as we neared the end of our conversation, he pulled out his first camera which he recently acquired from ebay. he let me take a peek at it and i saw that it was an older film canon in beautiful shape. andrew loaded his first roll of film in it this morning and was excited to being using it.
we shared quite a few good minutes together and then parted ways. i walked away feeling how interesting it was that he works as a bank investigator while i am spending most of my time on a project that doesn't pay, but, at the end of the day, we ride similar bikes and listen to similar music and wear similar clothes and hang out at similar spots and enjoy similar hobbies. andrew was impressed at the timing of our meeting and the fact that it happened at all. i think about that every day. about the serendipity and interconnectivity of so much that happens. so so so much.
thanks a lot, andrew!
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