A Day with Brooklyn Photographer Rich Fazo

This video is brought to you by Squarespace. Yo, we're back with another episode of Walkie Talkie. Today we got the homie Rich. Rich, what is up? What's good, man? How you feeling, man? Can you introduce yourself for the people out there? Yeah, my name is Rich Fazo. I'm a photographer and DJ from Ghana, but I've been Brooklyn-based for the last over a decade. Where are we at today? We're in Brooklyn, Con Heights. I've been living here for a while. I've been photographing here, getting used to the neighborhood, the people, so I figured we might start here. Cool, let's go. Let's get it. Is this always the kind of gear that you rock when you're walking around? Yeah, I like a media format. You know, I start with the medium, then I have a 35 millimeter with me as much as possible, because you never know, because sometimes not that many amounts of shots with this, so sometimes something might happen. I might just put this one in and kind of crank this easily. Try to shoot primarily with the media format, or do you kind of just like- Balance. Yeah, I just balance as I go, you know what I mean? So, let me get my meter out. What's the media format we're shooting today? Yeah, it is the Bronica. I feel like a lot of people don't shoot the Bronica. Every time I pull it up, people think it's a Mamiya or something, but it's a Bronica. I liked it, though. What focal length is that? This is a 65. I think equivalent to like 35. It's kind of, usually like a 55 is more of a 28, but I kind of like this, though. You shoot with the Leica, what is that, like a MP? Yeah, the MP 28 only. You gotta try and be a fly on the wall for these kids, you know? Sometimes I come here with my large format, and I just like set it up on the corner, and people just straight just look at me like, what is this? Does that ever lead to like photo opportunities? People ask you questions? People ask questions, for sure. People always ask questions, and sometimes you get like an older gentleman or someone that will ask you guys, yo, can you take my picture? It's always good because sometimes it opens up the conversation and the barrier of like, oh, like, you introduce yourself and the neighborhood, you know? When you bring out the large format, are you trying to get the same kind of photo? No. Obviously, like with this, I can get a lot closer. With a large, obviously, I'm very like stational. I'm just like waiting for my scene to kind of like get together, like compose everything, and then shoot for that, you know? So it's very different from moving with this, you know? But it slows everything down, though. You have to be very intentional. I get one shot on each sheet, so you have to just like stand and stand and stand and make sure it's at the perfect time. Sometimes I'll just hang out in this corner for a little bit. It's a good light over here. Man, yeah, not carrying a camera every day. And a backpack. Does that ever make you want to simplify what you bring? No, not really. I think about it, you know, I do think about it, but I think the biggest thing for me is like, I have to get a backpack, like a full, like two strap backpack to make it easier. But whenever I look, I kind of look at my gear when I'm leaving the house and I'm like, I can't, I can't, I still got to grab everything. And there's been moments where I'm like, man, I miss having my camera with me when I wanted to shoot something. So, and I know that feeling, I try to like avoid it. So I always try to constantly have some sort of gear with me. You know what I mean? Even if it's something light, it doesn't matter what I'm shooting with as much as I have something that I'm comfortable with. What made you want to go into large format? I just started looking at some of the large format photography, like, like Avedon's work. You know what I mean? His large stuff. And I'm like, man, this ---- is clean. It's beautiful. And the negatives, how like the details in the negatives, how big it is. And I've never shot, I've shot 35 millimeter, 120. And I was like, no, I want to try it. I thought it was going to be easy. You know what I mean? I started having a conversation with one of my friends, Adam, who was very, very helpful, Adam Fryberg. I started having a conversation. At first second, I was like, man, do I really want to get into this? Cause he's been shooting large all his life, you know? I kind of looked at it and I was like, you know what? Let me give it a shot. And then I tried, but in the beginning, it was, it was, it was, it was pretty hard because I didn't know a lot of the kind of the sacrifice you have to do. He's like, you'll start with four by five, see how comfortable you get with it and then kind of grow from, from there. So I was like, you know what, this is, but for now the four by five is perfect. You know what I mean? Cause the size of the negatives and like the size of the film carrying it around and all that, but I want to take it to like Midtown or, and try it. You know, I saw the video of the guy that you had that was, that does large on the street. Gary. Yeah. I was like, man, shout out to him, the dedication to carry this around all day and kind of do it. You know, it's not, it's not an easy fit for sure. You know, the thing with this is I also, I also got to constantly load up, you know, cause you're out to get, I only get 12 shots. If I'm lucky, the shots got to count and I have to always constantly remember myself to, to load up with this. I I'm, I'm boom, boom, boom, 35. You know, I can get a lot of shots in there. Are you a type of photographer that like, that like kind of shoots a lot when you're out or do you kind of like take your time? I take my time. Like I take my time. Sometimes like I'll be out bro. And I'd be out for like four hours and I probably just shot one, one, one photo. You know what I mean? I'm very, I get picky with it. I try, I try not to overthink it. You know what I mean? I have this thing like shoot now and think later, but like has to be the right scene for me. You know what I mean? I have to slow down and, and make it make sense, especially with this camera. So when I, when I'm shooting 35, that I'm like free for all. I'm like just, I'm like just straight fire off as much as possible. Yeah, I usually hang out over here for a little bit. In this corner. It's a lot of just hanging around. Rich, do you do photography full time? No, I wish, no, I wish, I wish I could, you know, so many things that I'm kind of like involved in, you know, obviously one being music and that takes a lot of my time too. I wish I could do photography full time, but I'm kind of blessed to kind of do both whenever I'm in town and whenever I'm here, especially during the day when I'm not like, if I'm DJ usually like, unless like an event or something, like I'm usually free during the day. So I'll do photography then at night I'm either in the club or doing like somebody's party or something. So there's a balance. And for so long up until maybe this year, I had a regular nine to five as well. So I was kind of balancing off free. So it was not easy, you know, but I do enjoy it because obviously I'm kind of blessed to be able to do all that, you know, but photography for sure, I would one day love to do it straight full time, you know. Over music? Oh, I wouldn't say over music because I do love music as well. So I could say it's two different things, you know, it gives me, it gives me something else because sometimes I do love photography. And like, sometimes like, one thing I love about street photography and documentary is sometimes I don't have to interact with people too much where it's kind of like my energy is very much to myself. I'm just like a fly on the wall. I get to just photograph whenever I want to, whenever, wherever I go. But with music, you have to give some parts of you, you know, interacting with people, being in the environment where people want to talk to you, people just want to just hang out with you. So this I can do by myself. With music, I have to give a little and be a little bit more out there. So there's a balance of doing both. And sometimes I'm like, all right, during the day I'm just walking around, I'm off camera, put my headphones in, not get bothered and just like straight photograph. And when I want to feel very social, I'm in the music scene, DJing and you meet people and it's very, very fun. So it's a balance of both, you know, it's yeah. You also work in like fashion menswear industry? Yeah, yeah, yeah. For so long, that was my, you know what I mean? Up until this year, I kind of like, you know, but for so long, that was my world. And I love it too. I love clothes, I love fashion. I think that's my first drive and opening to like seeing things, you know? Clothes is, everybody loves clothes. Everybody loves clothes, you know what I mean? It's one of the essentials of life, clothing. I'm going to get this killed at basketball. Oh man, okay, I'm suddenly shocked then. But I would say the one thing that music kind of gives me is the travel aspects of it. You know, I get to travel a lot, which is fun, you know? Because sometimes like when I travel and doing the day I don't have a show, I get to photograph some of the places that I've never, you know what I mean? That I never photographed. So it opens a whole different world for photography for me, so. When we talk about traveling, how often do you travel? Oh man, pretty often, pretty often, yeah, it's pretty. Like once a month? In the last couple of years, yeah. I'll do fashion week and then like Paris or you know what I mean, here or other places, but then I also bring my camera, you know what I mean? When I have a little bit of time in between appointments and stuff, I'll kind of get a chance to photograph. We're talking about worldwide, we're not just talking about like in the United States. You DJ everywhere. Everywhere, yeah, it's like Asia, America, Africa. I've traveled a good amount. Europe, Europe is a good, I go to Europe a good amount of times in the year. So we're talking about you're a DJ, you're not just a DJ, you're like a worldwide, you're like a pretty successful DJ. I would say yeah, you know, I would say yeah. Yeah, I'm blessed and I'm lucky, you know what I mean? I have friends and people around the world where they would like either book me or like reach out to me with opportunities. So whenever people reach out with opportunities, I try to grasp it and do my best job. And keep in contact with people and constantly like try to travel and see the different scenes, you know, because I love New York. New York is, don't get me wrong, New York is one of my favorite places, but to travel and also when I have the energy and I have no kids to do that, might as well take that opportunity. Because when those things do change or you start to like settle down, you know what I mean? Like it's not as much traveling, but for now, like, you know, I want to keep it very much kind of like this, you know? I'm very lucky and blessed. I was just in Ghana recently. I was doing some work down there, but just that was straight photographing. Yeah, straight photographing, yeah. So it was good to go back and just kind of see my life from a different lens, you know, because obviously like being born there and being raised there, I wasn't photographing when I was down there, but now going back and being able to photograph and to see things in a different light, it's a blessing. So I was down there and I was photographing and I love the work that I did down there, man. Was that the first time you went back to Ghana to photograph? No, I was there five years ago, 2021 and 2022. I was down there and I haven't been back since. So this year I was like, you know what? Let me take the time. And I also had a plan in mind of what I wanted to do. You still have roots in Ghana? Like you still have family over there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So when you go there, you still feel like a local? Yeah, 100%. I was literally like, literally very much a local, you know what I mean? I mean, I do stick out sometimes for the camera. I love going back. I was like, oh, I should be doing this a lot more. Eight hours a day, eight to 10 hours just walking around, you know what I mean? Shorts and literally a t-shirt and flip flops. It's just like all day, constantly photographing. It was good. That was probably like the most photographs I've made in that period of time. So I shot so many rolls. Coming back, I was like, man, like, this is gonna hurt my pocket. So you talk about like taking a lot of trips for like your DJing or even like personal stuff. Do you find time to photograph? Do you photograph all the time when you go to different cities? Yeah, I try to. I try to. Usually like, for example, if it's work related, I try to get like a day where it's like a day off where I might get there a day earlier or I might stay a day extra to photograph. If I'm not in a rush to come back, I wanna be able to look back and be like, man, when I went to Australia, I had some work there. When I went to Paris, I had a little bit of work. When I went to London, you know what I mean? London's a good place too. I photograph a lot in London, especially doing the carnival. But yeah, traveling, something like if I go to London, I'm DJing for, let's just say for carnival or like some of the parties, maybe I'll stay like a day or two after. Oh, I'll get there a little early, you know what I mean? And then photograph or photograph the event itself. So I try to find a little bit of a balance in there and to make sure that when I look back, I can have some work to kind of show that I went to these places, you know? And I also have to find where I can fit in in these communities and make sure that there's something in there for me. How long have you actually been photographing? I've been photographing for 10 years now, over 10 years, over 10 years. But I've been on the street, I've been on the street maybe since 20, I don't know if it was 2019, 18, 19, but I think COVID changed a lot of the things, right? When COVID hit, obviously I wasn't traveling as much and I wasn't DJing as much. So then that's when I was like, oh, eight days, sorry, eight hours a day from then. So for the last, like I would say for the last five, six years, it's been like, there's maybe three or four times a week where I'm like out, you know what I mean? I'm out a lot. Full day, full days, yeah, you know? So consistently I would say right after, I feel like from COVID up until now, like which has been like five, six years now, I've been out a good amount of the days, man. Like when I'm not traveling, when I'm not working, I try to be out as much. Does that balance ever get hard, knowing how long it takes to get a good photograph and the amount of effort it takes to stay consistent with your music and with like when you had the nine to five, like that balance feels like, yeah, it kind of fills the schedule. One thing I used to do is like I used to be out early, either before work, I'd be out early before work. And then, like I said, like I used to photograph the kids. Even if I couldn't go, if I couldn't go to Midtown and can't come out here, I'd at least be on my block with my camera early in the morning, photograph for the first couple of hours, go home, get ready, or sometimes I'm ready. If I have my regular camera, throw my bag, go to work. And then after work, if I don't have nothing to do after work, right after I get off work, I'm out in the street. I photograph till late, come home, relax, eat, go to sleep, and do the exact same thing all over again because, like I said, I was like, I ain't got no kids. When is DJing, like when is the, because then you have to DJ too on top of that. You have to DJ on top of that, you know what I mean? So that's what I'm like doing a week. During the week, I'm like constantly, I just try to make the time to go out, make sure I'm ready for some work. On the weekends, it's tricky. On the weekends, I can't be out too late because I have to DJ. So with that, go to work, come home, go to DJing. Or go to work, go straight to DJing. So on the weekends, I try to not do as much, you know, unless it's like a special, unless it's Sunday. Sundays, I try not to DJ. I try to leave it, Sunday's like my rest day. And then sometimes I'll go to the park. I live not too far from Prosper Park. I'll go to the Prosper Park and walk around with my camera as soon as I have my large format out there and just do some stuff, you know what I mean? To balance. I try to, you know, and also trying to find time with friends and family. I have to also kind of give a little bit of that to give and take. So you have to understand the timing. Sometimes people are like, man, I haven't seen you in a while. And I'm like, ah, let's hang out, ah. What are you doing? Ah, you know? So we only have enough time, you know what I mean? So try to be out as much as possible, you know? Because now I have the energy and I can carry all these with me. When the time comes when I can't, it's going to be tough. It's going to be real tough. So I got to use those times as much as possible, you know? So, yeah. You got to read, man. She's reading. That's a good scholar. She's going to grow up and be somebody. I think reading is very, very important. And one thing I do read though, I would say photo books. I do read a lot of, you know what I mean? A lot of like, because sometimes a lot of people like to talk about the forwards in the photo books. And I was like, I like to hear how they kind of put together everything and the timeframe. So I'm going to shot and I got to reload. Man, he was in my shot. All right, I'm done with this roll. You're not trying to get me to go to class? Come on. You got to let him go to class, man. Even if it's gym, go, man. See what I'm talking about? These kids, bro. You try to get him not to go to class. He's like, come on, it's not, it's gym, don't. Come on, man. I got to reload. The only reason why I work so hard is so I can afford these things. These things, they're getting expensive, man. Going back to your Ghana trips. How do you feel like, since you're from there, you got family there, how do you feel like that gives you like an advantage or lets you see differently versus somebody that was just visiting? Yeah, I mean, like, obviously, because I know, the advantage I think it gives me is like obviously knowing where I want to shoot. I do speak the language, you know, and I understand the language. So going back and photographing, somebody asked me a question, like, why are you photographing? Right when I start talking in our language to kind of understand like, oh, I'm one of them. Even if I don't live there, I'm documenting my own people. You know what I mean? My own people, my own culture. I'm proud and happy to say that, you know? Like, these are where I'm from. These are my ends, you know? Do you think that's a place that somebody can just, like a visitor could just like come in and photograph? Yeah, I think so. Because Guineans are very friendly people. We're very, very friendly. We embrace people. You know what I mean? So I think if you have good intentions and to go photograph, I think you should 100% do it, man. Like, you have to, and obviously try to give back as much as you can. Like, you can't just roll up and be like, yo, I'm gonna just photograph these people and just kind of walk away. No, no, no. You have to understand and give back, you know? So that, you know, you feel good as a person. Leaving and not just taking away, you know? So, you know? Hey, yo. How you feeling? That's your boy? Can I get a picture of you guys? Come on this side. Where are you guys going? Oh, we're going back to the shop? Yeah. What's up? You gonna leave me hanging? Yeah. How you feeling? Yeah, I'm gonna get a picture of you guys. Three, two, one. Perfect, there we go. Yeah. There's less chaos now. Bro, I'm not even gonna lie. These kids, sometimes, they used to get into fights. They would be playing dice. They would be like, before going to class, they're like just rolling up, like some wild, crazy stuff they used to do over here. I was like, man, all the high school kids, man. You know? But now, being here now, it's kind of like, I think like those kids probably graduated and now like these new kids are very like, I just can't see them all going straight to class. So it's less chaos, which I'm actually more proud of. But before it used to be, some of these kids just like standing on cars and just like being kids, you know? Just having a good time. In the morning. In the morning, bro, in the morning. They have so much energy. It's wild. I was like, man, I don't remember having that much energy at seven, eight in the morning. These kids all walk in groups, you know? They're like, they tend to like, they're friend groups and stuff. And it kind of reminds me of high school, man. Just like who you hang out with before class. You know, it starts to like, know where your homies are going to be at, you know? So that's why sometimes I spend a lot of time over here. It's film. I don't have it. I'll give you, I can, next time you see me on the block, I can have it for you. All right? Enjoy your day. That's one of the things that I always get constantly with film. Can I see it? I'd be like, eh, I don't have it. When I get it developed, I can show you, but. You think it's a pro or con? For me, it's a pro. Because if I have a screen, it would change it. I might as well just stay home. You know what I mean? Because I'm going to constantly be like scrolling, looking at it and be like, yeah, here you go. You know what I mean? Like, and then you go, I'm like, oh, take another one, you know? You big into photo books? Yeah. What are some recent ones you picked up that have made like an impact? Oh, I picked up Sage Sawyer's America's Scene. Sage Sawyer's work gave me perspective on composition, man. Her composition is elite. I was like, bro, how are you there at the perfect time? I picked up Mark Steinmetz's Chicago. It's also great work, man. It's like his composition too, and his like shadows and his blacks. Great, great work. Alex Webb's Suffering Light. I think that's what the name is. Man, I mean, Alex Webb's colors are elite. I wish I could shoot color like that. But also it's like, I was just talking about somebody traveling, you know that. I picked up Bruce Gilden's Haiti. Haiti also, when I was going to Ghana, that was a book that I had with me. You know what I mean? Because Haiti and Ghana are very similar, you know? So it gave me a lot of inspiration in Ghana, getting closer to people and photographing. I picked up Dean Arbus, her Arpiture 1 Portraiture work. I think she's elite with that. She's great with that. Yeah, and like the subject that she was photographing, a lot of people that she photographed were interesting. I love that book. I picked up Rulik's Dog. His book, I Gave You Power. He shot it in Brooklyn. I don't know what he looks like. I don't know who he is, but his work in Brooklyn from the early 2000s is good work. It's really, really, really good work. He was just hanging out with some of the neighborhoods and they would let him in into their world and just photographing some of the people that were just hanging out on the block. I've never met him personally. I would love to meet him because I went to have a conversation with him about his work recently. It's a really good book. I haven't gotten it yet, but pre-ordered it, Andrew Wagner's book. I'm looking forward to that. I've seen a lot of Dre's work and Dre's a really nice dude, really good dude from the conversations I've had with him. So I'm excited for his book. I wish I had his previous book. I can't find it anywhere. It's hard. Dre, if you're looking at this, please, if you have a copy, I'm not saying give it to me for free. I'll pay for it, you know? But his new book, I'm excited about. One of my, my old neighbor gave me, it was Davidson's Subway book. He gave it to me and I had it for a minute and it was just sitting at the crib for a while and he was moving. I gave it back to him. He had forgot he had given it to me. I should have looked, he kept it. Now getting that book is *******, that's a good book. It was Davidson's Subway book. It's a great book. I go back to it a lot. Yeah, I've been picking up Mary Allen Mark's work. I have a 25 year anniversary book. I think that's what it's called, 25 years. Man, she's also elite, elite, man. Yeah, I'm always constantly trying to like picking up books. I just love to collect. I'd rather spend my money on that. You know what I mean? My hard earned money, man. If I have the space, I want to build a bookshelf and get more books as much as I can. I picked up one recently of this, oh man, what's her name? She's from New York. She did a lot of work uptown. Maya Lucas? Yes, I went to her event and I picked up her book. Man, a lot of the stuff from uptown, I think Harlem, and then she was doing the Puerto Ricans. So I've done a lot of, I've done a good amount of stuff from the Puerto Rican Day Parade as well. So to kind of see that perspective of her work, that's very beautiful. Yeah, I'm glad that you remember her name because I couldn't remember it for a second. Sometimes it's literally just hugging the block, man. Standing here and these kids all walking packs, bro. When you go to Midtown, is it the same setup? Same setup, same setup, yeah, medium format. So Midtown, I shoot late, too. I shoot sometimes past 9, 10. I try to, that's why I also try to be out early as much as possible so I can get a lot of natural light. And when it comes down to it at night, then pop the flash on. You kind of lose that aspect of being a fly on the wall. You definitely, you know what I mean? You definitely lose that aspect of it. You're like a wasp. Yeah, at that point, everybody's like, get away from me. But you can also be a fly on the wall with the flash, though. Being a fly on the wall is also not being confrontational. Being a fly on the wall is not, I think it's not just blending in, but also it's not bringing a lot of attention with the photograph, you know what I mean? Because a fly on the wall can be really loud, too, and also can be very, you know what I mean, very incognito. Just hanging out, supposed to go to class, but they're not going to class, you know? You guys not going to class? Yeah? Okay. Appreciate it, man. Do you shoot? Yo, can I take you guys' picture? Yeah? All right, bet. You want to come out here? See how they smile? They're mad excited, they're like, yeah. You gotta take your mask off, though. He said, oh, nah. Yeah, right here. Come on, man. Whatever you want to do, just be comfortable, man. You want to look back and be happy with it. Come on, come on. Ready? Three, two, one. We'll get a little closer. Man, y'all get closer, man. Y'all don't like each other? None of y'all going to look at the camera? All right, man. We'll do whatever y'all make you happy, man. All right, three, two, one. Perfect. All right, man. I'm going to see you. You have my gram, right? All right, I'm going to send it to you. Send me a message, of course. You happy? All right, enjoy your day, guys. You too, man. Your music career has gotten you into some pretty interesting access to, whether it's celebrity or this or that or backstage or whatever. Do you photograph when you're doing that kind of stuff? Yeah, sometimes I do. Like I was saying, it gives me an access. Like you said, it gives me an access where people are like, yo, if I'm backstage with, let's just say, some artists, right? And I remember I played a festival in Dubai for Hip Hop's 50th, and I was backstage with Mos Def, Busta Rhymes, Lupe Fiasco. I was backstage with a lot of these artists, and then I have my camera, and I was just like, can I get a picture of you? And they're like, yeah, sure. I'll take a picture, you know what I mean? Ooh, the Manhattan is coming in one minute. Let's go. I might have to run it. To Midtown. The next stop is Blythe Square. Quick break in this episode to talk about today's sponsor, Squarespace. See, Squarespace is the online platform for creatives and photographers to build your presence in your home base online. And Squarespace makes the whole thing easy. Their built-in templates are genuinely good for photographers right out of the box. You don't need any background in design or building sites. You can hop straight in and choose from the thousands of templates to get started. 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And when you're ready to launch, make sure to use that code Pauly B to support the channel and get 10% off your first purchase. So as always, I appreciate the support. Thank you to Squarespace for sponsoring this episode. Now let's get back to it. You feel like you get to, like when you change scenes, like Brooklyn to Midtown, you have to like let your mind warm up or like, is there like a period of changing? Yeah, you have to. I have to. Cause like, I mean, I did, I would love for it to be seamless in the same way. But like coming here, you have to be a little bit on edge too. Because here sometimes you get like, the crazy thing about here, sometimes like I've gotten people say, yo, you photograph me? And I'm like, I didn't photograph you. If I did, I'll gladly tell you I did. But I've been like, you know what I mean? I didn't photograph you. So you have to be on edge and you have to be also, here people wouldn't talk to you as much. You know, we're in my neighborhood. You see people would talk to you, people would stop, say what up. You know? I have to constantly be like, all right, cool. Here nobody's going to talk to me. Here I'm like, just here to work. Who would you say your influences are? Like who kind of inspires your photography? Who do you look up to? Winogrand. I love Winogrand's work. I love Roy DeCarava. I love DeCarava's work. It's beautiful work, man. I love Dre's work. I love Issa's work. Mary Ellen Mark. I love her work. I love Dianne Arbus' work. I love Robert Frank. I love Lee Freelander as well. I think it's just, they're different but also very similar as well. It's about the story that they're telling, the people that they're photographing, the neighborhoods that they're photographing and the travel aspect of it. Like Mary Ellen Mark, some of the stuff that she did in India, it's beautiful work. You know what I mean? Dianne Arbus, her portraiture, like the people that she's, the subjects that she's photographing, it's very, it's very interesting to me. You know what I mean? Like how she moved around Sage Sawyer's work. It's like her composition is ******* nuts. You know what I mean? Hold on, let me show this other way. I think she's in, she's in a league of her own when it comes to some of the ---- that she shot, like some of the neighborhoods. I think she did a lot of her stuff in Boston and just moving around and like doing all those work. Being from Ghana too, like James Bonner. I love James Bonner's work. Amazing, amazing, amazing photographer. Picked up his book recently, James Bonner Stories. I really liked it because obviously it hits home. It's stuff that like I grew up seeing. I think overall they're just all telling their stories. You know what I mean? They're telling who they are, where they're from. Actually talk about work ethic. Talk about what's next to Stephen Shore. Stephen Shore's another crazy guy, man. He is, work ethic wise, he's, my friend started shooting at like ******* seven, six, seven. Picked up his first camera at a really young age. Started hanging out with Warhol and all these dudes and started doing some early stuff. And then started doing like the landscape stuff. So talk about, yeah, his book is also really good. Oh, actually you know who I forgot? Baldwin Lee. Baldwin Lee, man. He's an Asian man that moved to the South to go teach. And then I think he shot on large format if I remember correctly. Went out there to shoot the South, you know what I mean? And I'm like, at that time, I don't know how it is for Asian men to just go out to the South to go teach, right? And to also have an interest in black communities, to photograph them. It's not, you know, it's not easy. To let those people also end their lives, let you in their community and photograph them. And he did a great job because those photos are beautiful. Good ******* great work, so. Hope I got that frame right. So I was a little too close and I was moving a little too fast. Are you zoning? I'm zoning. I always zone. I think in the early, early beginning, I was trying to be critical while I was doing the shoot. Man, I was like, what? It was so hard to do. Finish your sentence. I take photos because. I love it. I take photos because I, I love it. It's like, that's the only thing that, one of the few things that bring me joy. Like, if there's nothing else I want to do, then you just photograph. I go everywhere with my camera. It's not a, the only place I don't go is probably the bathroom. But I go everywhere with a camera. Like, it's always like a, this and this or a point and shoot in my pocket. Like, I try to document so many things. You know what I mean? It doesn't always have to be street or documentary. I just take photos of my friends as well. But I just love, I love photography, man. Like, it's one of those mediums where it's timeless. I can always look back at it. Like, you know, I want people to see what it was like living in our time, you know? So, yeah. Oh, ----. I don't know how to film. Hopefully I got that too. I was mad close, I was mad close to him. Super close. He's like, let me see. I was like. So, it's kind of like right here. How you feeling, all right? I don't get nothing over here. Photographs are like, come back later. I like people that are interesting, you know? Dress different, look good. Look good, feel good. Ah, one more shot. Ah, ah, let's get it. Got it. My last shot. Gotta have some self-faith. That was fifth right there, for the last shot. Now I don't like a come in play. Well, I'm sorry. You good? You charge it. Be safe. Sorry. I got you. I did, I'm sorry. You're not photographing? I am. Okay. All right, appreciate you. I'm late to work. Enjoy, all right. Have a good day, all right? She's freaking out. She's like, why you take a picture of me? See how easy it is with a Leica, though? Like, I switch over, I'm like, straight like, four shots already. All right, I'm gonna put this one away. I always forget to turn this camera off sometimes. All right, that is gonna do it. Rich has to go and prepare for an event. He's gonna be DJing till 4 a.m., so we gotta wrap this up. Rich, thanks for hanging out with me today. Thank you for having me, as always. Appreciate you, thank you so much. Can you let the people know where to show you some love? So if you wanna follow me on my Instagram, it's at Rich Faso, R-I-C-H-F-A-Z-O. That's for everything, but I also have a photography page. That's at Faso.photo. So, if you have any questions, send me a message, whatever, so. All right, man, peace. Peace.