Preparing fish during the morning hours to be sold at lunch at a small restaurant in Mexico City. Notice, it is being prepared on the cafe table where customers will later be eating.
Lonely Streets in Mexico City
A lonely street on a Saturday morning in Mexico City. Employees of businesses stand and wait for the company they work for to open their doors for the day. Very few employees are key holders.
310 Sleeping Bags
A big thank you to those of you who have helped me with blankets and sleeping bags. I gave my last sleeping bag to John (pictured), who served in the National Guard. He then gave the bag to his friend, as opposed to keeping it for himself. So, I gave John blankets and he was so appreciative.
For the count, that is 310 sleeping bags in the past 3 months.
Hands of Heart
Nashville, TN: He continued to say that his mother died and then he would hold his hands in the shape of a heart.
"The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness." - Honore de Balzac, French Playwright (1799-1850)
Mexico City Food Stands
Did you realize that over 75% of the population in Mexico City eats from food stands that are set up throughout the city at least once per week?
Everything from cow head, sheep, pork, steak to chicken and seafood are served on the street.
This is a photo of a man preparing a meal as he gets ready for the lunch crowd.
"I've seen zero evidence of any nation on Earth other than Mexico even remotely having the slightest clue what Mexican food is about or even come close to reproducing it. It is perhaps the most misunderstood country and cuisine on Earth." - Anthony Bourdain
Street Photography: Thinking
Street Photography in Birmingham, Alabama... Thinking
"Diversity: the art of thinking independently together." - Malcolm Forbes
Construction is hard work
He works hard daily doing construction in Birmingham, Alabama.
“If you don't sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice”
― Anonymous
I asked his age
I could barely understand his words, most of which were inaudible. He spoke with a sad face and his eyes were hidden by the shadow of his hat. He could barely walk, even with his crutches. I asked his age, but it was just a breath.
He has been to the Holy Lands
Lorenzo Parks has been homeless in Birmingham, Alabama since age 11. Today, he is 54 years old.
He told me that he was not homeless due to breaking bridges or causing problems, but instead because of two questions he asked. One question was to his mother when he was a small child and the second was to God.
“She [mom] used to bring me downtown to go shopping, this day was cold – ice - ice cold, never will forget it,” he explained to me. “I looked over there by this building and there was a group of people laying down with covers on them. I stopped and said mom, can I ask you a question?” He went on to explain the question to his mother, “What are these people laying down with the covers on them?” His mom then said, “These are the folks we call homeless.”
It was not long after that question was asked that his mother passed away in his arms. He later went by the same building as a child and without a parent to watch over him and he noticed that people were still there, still homeless. “I then looked up at the sky and asked what these people go through everyday,” he said to me.
Those were the two questions. One to his mother about the homeless before she passed away and the second to God asking what the homeless go through. Mr. Parks believes those two questions led him to be homeless.
Despite his homelessness, he told me he never asks people for money, never holds a sign, he simply lives. “I have even been to the Holy lands, I went with a church,” he told me with a smile.
His life while homeless has not necessarily been bad and he has perhaps lived more than some of us have.
“We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.” ― Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright (1854-1900)
To travel is to learn
Zach Zablosky went to the prestigious Berklee School of Music in Boston after graduating from high school. He plays guitar and he plays guitar well. However, he told me, “I just could never find a fit – you know? I just couldn’t make it work. I was unsatisfied.”
After quitting a heroin habit and dropping out of Berklee, he hit the road. He headed to California in hopes of starting a band. There, he made new friends and went to his first Rainbow Gathering.
A Rainbow Gathering is a community of people who meet in different forest annually celebrating peace, love and harmony. The gatherings last anywhere from one week to multiple weeks. In describing it he said, “We built our own stoves with rocks, everything is free.”
After his Rainbow Gathering in the Golden State he saw the Grateful Dead in concert and then ventured to New Orleans followed by Florida. From Florida he met a new friend who taught him about the rail lines.
From Jacksonville to Pensacola he traveled by train, which was over 350 miles. Zablosky didn’t travel in a stylish passenger car or even a boxcar, but instead a gondola. A gondola is an open air train car that hauls scrap metal.
From Florida he traveled to Austin, Texas by way of train hopping. He then caught a ride with a friend in a real vehicle, eventually finding his way to Louisville. After a short time in Kentucky, he went back to the East where he made his way to his home state of Pennsylvania. He visited with his parents for a spell before heading to Vermont to spend a summer. But, one summer did not slow the 32 year old down.
I asked if he ever had bad experiences while traveling on the trains and he said, “No, but I have met some people that were some less savory characters.”
After a brief hiatus he hitched back to the west where he rode in a train car along the famous Route 66. “I rode that on Thanksgiving,” he told me. After sleeping through the night on a train he ended up in a small town where he met a man who invited him to a Thanksgiving meal at a small church. In describing the church he said, “One of the Hippie churches around, you know, a biker church or whatnot.”
He had a homemade warm meal and then jumped back on a train and traveled to Los Angeles. After spending time there, he again decided to head south, which is where I met him and his dog. He was drinking coffee on a sunny, but cool February morning in Birmingham, Alabama.
“A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.” ― Lao Tzu, Chinese philosopher (604 BC - 531 BC)
Alabama is surrounded by oceans
Mental illness is far bigger than most of us could ever imagine. Thoughts or ideas get locked inside of the brain of the person suffering and they become concrete as to what that person believes to be fact.
“They tried to expand Alabama, but it fell apart,” he told me in a convincing voice. I asked, “Is there anything outside of this area [Birmingham, Alabama].” He then replied, “I don’t think so.” He then suggested that all of the other states are gone and we, where we were sitting, are surrounded by ocean. “If you walk that way [pointing] you’re hitting the ocean and if you walk that way [pointing] you’re hitting the ocean,” he explained.
He fully believed that Alabama was an island surrounded by the ocean and all of the other United States were gone, crumbled away. It went as far as him telling me that if I got on top of a nearby building I would only see ocean for miles.
“People assume you aren’t sick
unless they see the sickness on your skin
like scars forming a map of all the ways you’re hurting.”
― Emm Roy, The First Step
He has dreams to travel
I think in life we often forget how fragile the world around us really is… How one negative word can change the trajectory of a life in a single breath. How one bad act against another can turn someone already suffering to the edge of their existence. I think we forget that everyone around us has some deep down dream they have yet to live, but want so badly to do so.
This man is 25 years old and lives on the streets of Birmingham, Alabama and he told me, “I have only been to Kentucky, Ohio and once Tennessee, but I didn’t get to see Tennessee we only passed through.”
I asked, “If you could do anything, what would you do?” He paused and thought for a second and then responded, “Really? Anything? If there was a job or a chance – I’d love to travel, I want to see the world - - I want to travel!”
He has never seen the ocean, but hopes to someday soon.
“You do not travel if you are afraid of the unknown, you travel for the unknown, that reveals you with yourself.” - Ella Maillart, photographer and writer (1903-1997)
The Catholic Church in Mexico
I shot this photo in a Mexico City Catholic Church on a Sunday afternoon.
Roman Catholicism was first introduced in Mexico during the period of the Spanish conquest that started in 1519. The Catholic Church had a powerful say in the governence of Mexico up until the end of the Mexican Revolution.
It was not until the end of the Mexican Revolution that the Catholic Church's role in Mexico was restricted constitutionally.
Over 101 million people in Mexico are said to be Catholic today. Mexico has the second largest Catholic population in the world, just under Brazil which is number one.
Stronger Than Yesterday
Mexico City is a very vibrant and youthful area filled with Latin rhythms and salsa dancing in the public parks along with a multitude of public workout areas.
“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.” —Ernest Hemingway
The Famed VW Beetle
He was attempting to start his small VW. After about the 4th crank, she started.
The first Volkswagen Beetle was introduced to Mexico in 1954. The car obviously caught on and by 1967, it was being produced in Puebla, Mexico. In 1968, the 100,000th Beetle rolled off the assembly line in Mexico.
In 2004, Mexico was still producing the VW Beetle and while the engine was different, the car itself looked nearly identical to the 1954 model.
By 2006, the VW Beetle was highly utilized by taxi companies. In Mexico City where this photo was taken, there were 50,000 Beetles on the streets that were painted green and used as taxis. In 2017, there are only about 3,500 Beetle taxis still taking passengers from point A to point B.
In all, 21 million Volkswagen Beetles were manufactured in Mexico, all looking much like the first one from 1954.
Dressed to impress
(Street Photography) Impeccably dressed man in Mexico City (left) - He reminded me of Frank Sinatra, in a way.
"I'm not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I'm not looking for the secret to life... I just go on from day to day, taking what comes." - Frank Sinatra
Elvis Played Here
Inside the Nashville RCA Studio B you will find this old piano that has many stories written within its strings. One of those stories being Elvis Presley sitting behind the keys playing his favorite gospel songs surrounded by friends singing before actually recording a song or two.
The studio was built in 1957 by Dan Maddox and used by many greats throughout the years up until 1977, the year that Elvis died. However, the closing had nothing to do with the King. The studio was already scheduled to close, ironically nearly a full year before Presley’s death.
Today, the studio still stands and looks almost identical to the way it looked when the greats like Chet Atkins, the Everly Brothers and of course Elvis used it in the 60’s. In fact, most if not all of the equipment still remains within its small acoustically perfect walls.
He was fast asleep
The song by Craig Morgan came to mind after the writer of the song woke the sleeping man:
“I was afraid that he was dead
I gave him a gentle shake
When he opened up his eyes
I said, "Old man are you ok?"
“He said, "I just climbed out of a cottonwood tree"
I was runin' from some honey bees
Drip dryin' in the summer breeze
After jumpin' into Calico creek
I was walkin' down an old dirt road
Past a field of hay that had just been mowed
Man I wish you'd just left me alone
Cause I was almost home”
-Craig Morgan, Almost Home
Photograph captured in the Tepito market on a side street in Mexico City. Tepito is an area known for crime and and area largely governed by gangs. It is an area filled with kidnappings, shootings and robberies. However, this man was sleeping peacefully.
Poverty in Mexico
She was selling candy in order to help feed her children. 1 Peso for one pack of Chiclets gum. I bought 20 packs (all she had), but they tasted as if they had been sitting around for about two years - so my son and I left them in the hotel room for the maid.
"The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing." — Albert Einstein, theoretical physicist
Anything helps
He was sitting outside of a church in Mexico City with his hat extended seeking help.