|  ©Jesse Chan-Norris
I was walking around Brooklyn the other day, running some errands, waiting for a bus when this guy walks past me. I look twice, thinking he looks very familiar. Once he's down the block I realize who I think he was...Jesse Chan-Norris - or, at least, I'm 89.99% sure that's who it was. For those of you who do not know, JCN is one of the photographers that I fervently followed throughout my high school years in Pennsylvania. While I was itching to leave the rural area and its mundanity, JCN (and many others...Jake Dobkin & Rion being a few that I remember - my computer has since broken down and been replaced with a new one and all my links were lost) provided illustrations, observations and representations, through photographs, of a life I wanted so badly to live. Feeling as if this dream was unreachable and so far in the future, I faithfully viewed their updates, watching my city unfold before me as if it was specially and personally delivered to my eyes, letting me know that New York wasn't going anywhere, that every day it awoke and every night it...well, didn't sleep. Eventually I got here, delivered right into my city, riding a wave of disbelief and happiness, the real thing being just as good as their photos. And so, in some way, I feel indebted to them. After I realized it was him, after he was already down the street, I wished I had said something, even if it was some fAnGuRl rant. Perhaps the opportunity will present itself again. |
