Zach in Autumn
Added 2020-03-24 11:44:15 +0000 UTCThe virus is sweeping the world, and many of us have to stay at home, so I thought I'd release a bonus shoot this month from my archives. I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe. ❤️
I met Zach in November of 2018, a few weeks after his 18th birthday. He had been following my instagram page, asking if he could model for a whole year, and I promised him a shoot for his birthday. He showed me around the NYC suburbs while chatting about photography and life. On his instagram page, Zach presented himself as a hardened city kid, a confident rascal. But in front of the camera, he became quite demure and introspective.
I wanted to capture Zach's personality as naturally as possible, so we played basketball in the court near his home before walking through a park and down some train tracks, climbing concrete onto an abandoned station laden with graffiti- a common path he takes when he is feeling down. It was on this walk that Zach opened up to me about his time as an orphan and the psychological struggle of living house to house in the NYC system. Adopted by two dads when he was 14, he was now struggling to catch up on schooling while fighting depression and forming his first long-term relationship with a new girlfriend. When we returned to his house at the end of the night, he played me a tune on his guitar, which I also incorporated into our shoot. Right before I left, he told me he had something he needed me to photograph him wearing and ran upstairs to his bedroom. He flew back down the stairs, shirtless and wearing a thin, black choker around his neck. Posing for a final few shots, he gazed into my lens with a growing confidence.
I think the more I discover about a person, the more beautiful the photographs of them become. This was certainly the case with Zach and I, as we discovered the sweet boy beneath the rough exterior. Some of my favorite photos of all time are from this shoot: Zach buried in orange leaves, gazing up at the autumn sunset. His dark expression seems filled with longing, but also with hope, as if a bright loving future that had been buried is about to climb forth.
I just released my entire Zach photo set (190 high-res photos) to full members. Upgrade now to get a full photo set every month.
