He walked by me in a rush, talking on his cell phone. He did a double-take just before he crossed the street, looking back over his shoulder, a bit bewildered, to ask me if I was taking pictures of the building wall. I said, "Well, now that you ask, I'm actually taking pictures of people I meet when they walk by."
It had been months since I did a photo shoot for an actor's/model's portfolio. On some of those shoots I would see a random person and think something like, "Now that's a person I would love to put in front of my lens. Authentic. Gritty." Teavin was that sort of person with a cool, urban vibe, and this was my chance to put my theory to the test - that I could snag a "real person" and get them to be my subject and that the result would be very cool.
I felt as if he welcomed the chance to strut his own stuff on the streets of South Beach, where commercial photo shoots occur on any given day. When he agreed to participate, he said, "Okay, I'm gonna go change." He was carrying a plastic grocery-type bag flung over his shoulder, stuffed with a few shirts, a florescent green jacket (with a Haitian emblem on the back), and a baseball cap.
I actually did not want him to change. It would detract from the random person mystique. As he added layers of clothing out there in the hot 79 degree sun, I wasn't worried; I knew he would eventually change back.
I could tell he was loving it, loving the attention from my medium format, machine-of-a-camera focused only on him. However brief our shoot was, it was meant to be - this random encounter. After all, he was traveling with a wardrobe sack flung over his shoulder, just as he happened to walk past a photo shoot, set up, but in need of a subject.
(His name is Teavin, and he is from Haiti, and he now lives in South Beach. He has not been to Haiti to see any of his family in 10 years due to citizenship laws. He was able to call home after the earthquake, and all of his family there is alive and okay.)
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