Ian

When I was a kid I was scared of men with tattoos.

Tattoos were not nearly as popular as they are now, and most humans who had lots of tattoos looked tough … at least that’s what I told myself.

I noticed Ian immediately from the other side of the street; he had a swagger to him. I thought there was a good chance he would tell me to get lost. I was happy to be walking in the opposite direction.

Fast forward to an hour later. Without noticing I walked back to where I first saw Ian. Lo and behold, he was in the exact same spot smoking another cigarette.

Do or die time Darius.

I said hi.

He seemed totally unaffected by me. I politely asked if we could do a 1-minute photoshoot and he said “I don’t care. I’m smoking my cigarette.”

I had half a cigarette’s length to get my shots.

At some point I asked Ian if he would lean up against the wall for a photo. With zero hesitation and a smirk on his face Ian said, “No. That’s not something I would do.”

I have never in over 700,000 photos had someone say no to one of my posing suggestions. It felt radically honest and a part of me really enjoyed it.

No show. No performance. No shits given about me and my fancy camera.

This dude was just being himself. And there’s something really refreshing about that.

This is part 1 of this story. It gets even more interesting in part 2. Stay tuned.

D

PS: If you are interested in working together I have a great promo for the summer. Send me a DM and I’ll send you the details.

PPS: If you want to see the behind the scenes video of me approaching Ian and taking these photos, check out my Instagram or my TikTok.

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