I met Davey in October of 2005. He was 13. I have been photographing
him, his friends and family, and his life ever since.
Tell us a bit about yourself…who are you, where do you live, what are you
doing besides photography, do you make a living out of it?
I am a photographer/artist living in Chicago. I was on the 7 year plan
in college, first pursing a business degree and eventually finishing
with a BFA from Columbia in photography in 2006. I pay my rent, buy
lots of film, and travel from working as freelance photo assistant to
commercial photographers in Chicago, NYC, and Los Angeles. I also
photograph editorial assignments when they come my way.
Where did you meet Davey?
I met Davey in a southwest suburb of Chicago called Stickney. It’s
maybe 8 or 9 miles west of downtown. It is a small neighborhood made
up of mostly working class people and these little bungalow homes. I
like it because it reminded me of where I grew up in Michigan. I was
walking around photographing when I heard skateboards down the street.
I went to this school where I saw two kids skating this small gap. I
walked up to them with the intention of making a couple portraits.
Davey instantly started calling me a fagot, which, oddly enough, made
me really interested in him. I remember thinking that I would not have
done that at his age. This kid obviously didn’t give a fuck. He was 13
then, I was 24. I ended up taking some pictures of him and his friend
Tony Mann. I spent maybe 3 or 4 hours with them that night and decided
that I needed to come back. I asked him if it would be cool if I met
up with them the following week and he said of course. (Davey tells
this story in the intro to the project.) That’s when I started to
photograph Davey.
What kind of person is Davey?
Lucky for me, I met Davey when he was only 13. He is now almost 18. So
obviously he has changed dramatically over the past 4 and a half
years. To say what kind of person he is… I couldn’t really answer
that yet. I can say as hard as he is, he has a good heart. If your
good in Davey’s book, there will be endless respect. And if your not
good, well that’s a different story.
Tell us one funny or tragic story of Davey…
When I first started hanging with Davey, he didn’t have a cell phone,
but some of his friends did. So when I was with him he would always
grab mine and make a bunch of random calls. One Friday we went to see
his x-girl Lorenza. The three of us were chilling on the stairs of her
apartment building and they started kissing a little bit. I decided to
go out for a smoke and let them be alone. About 20 minutes later Davey
came running out of the door and was laughing his ass off and was all
red faced. He was like “Dude, dude your Dad just called! hahahaha! I
told him Mr. Sorg, Brian will have to call you back, I’m getting my
dick sucked!”
I especially love how you incorporate personal Letters and these strange
Myspace pages into your Project, write some words on that please
Since the beginning of the project I’ve wanted to incorporate Davey’s
voice into the work. Without shooting motion and sound I had to figure
out alternative methods of getting it in there. I’ve recorded many of
our conversations with my iPod, grabbed screen shots of his myspace
page, and have had him write about our relationship. It’s like a
collaboration and he is a really good contributor. This is one of our
conversations from 2006:
BASEMENT TALK:
I’ve spent a lot of time in Davey’s basement talking about nothing really.
Davey- What up lil sack? Dirty, dirty dong!
Brian- Hey, how old is your girlfriend?
D- How old is who? Lorenza? I got this girl Guiney. She gotta big ass
– a fat ass!
B- Is that who we are going to see?
D- Naw. I don’t see her outside of school – only inside. But really
she’s got a fat
Ass. Honestly.
D- Hey look she gave me her notes from math class. For the test. I
passed. I got an A on it.
B- You use that?
D- You get to use it.
B- Yeah right, I don’t believe you.
D- You do. I use my girlfriends. She writes nice doesn’t she. Guiney
does. It’s nice
Though right? She writes nice as hell. It’s small.
B- You really like her writing huh?
D- Yeah dogg it’s like fucking her fat ass. Her ass is like this.
She’s there, I’m here,
Like oooooh, sup baby? (Pretends to have her bent over in front of him.)
D- Next week is the rec dance.
B- The what?
D- The rec dance, like the one I went to when I first met you.
B- Oh yeah. I can’t go to that though.
D- Why?
B- Can I?
D- Yeah, if you want to you really can.
B- How?
D- You gotta be like, “I’m 14 and go to…” Wait say, “I’m sixteen and failed.”
It might work.
B- I can’t do that I look too old! Maybe I can meet up with you guys afterward?
D- Dude, wanna meet my karate instructor?
B- She’s a girl huh? That’s cool.
D- Yeah and she’s real fat and she knows how to fucking fight! She
beat the shit
out of three guys at one time – three black guys.
D- She’s a black belt. She’ll fuck you up. Hey you should take a class with me.
B- I don’t have time for that, I’m too busy.
D- Why? I thought you like Tae-Kwan-Do?
B- I do, but I’m just too busy.
D- It’s only one day a week, pussy.
B- What’s the point? I can already beat your ass!
D- Right! Why don’t you show me what you got?
B- Ok. I’ll show you my best kick. (I do this lame-ass sweep kick.)
D- HAHAHA!!! You’re so gay! You would get your ass beat you pussy!
HAHAHA! What a gay kick! Ahhh dude, I would beat the hell outta you!
That was such a gay shit kick! What a queer! So gay and fruity. I gotta
call my Mom so chill…
www.deepspacesorg.blogspot.com
Interview: Ramon Haindl
2:22 pm • 12 May 2009 • ghostplay • Comments (View)
