Some distant moments of home; St. Lucia are surfacing. Gratitude fills the heart for this rock in West Indies but also for Mums choice to immigrate to the US. To know the body came from another land with completely different spices and customs. A whole semester of college was spent shooting the island with a Voigtländer R2M / 35mm film. One would feel the unique arrival of every moment here. It’s an atmosphere which encompasses your whole being. Island life can reveal a very profound understanding of simplicity. I do wish at times we stayed longer to take up Creole however, grateful for how the path unfolded. With deep knowing this journey wouldn’t be what it is now without those paramount decisions. Aum all is ordained by you infinite creator.
Smile with the countryside and green figs. Play with the dragonfly’s and humming birds. Shake hands with the shrubs, ferns, and mango trees. Talk to the wind, stars and sun. Converse with the rivers and waves of the sea. Develop relationships with the street dogs, horses and cows. Man makes himself miserable by his practice of separation. See life as a whole. One Love. One Heart. A comprehensive view. All life is one. Include all. Embrace all. All members of one human family. Let all life be sacred. Then this world will be a paradise of beauty. Unity is Eternal Life.
Protoje & Chronixx Tuff Gong Studios, 2018 (Kingston, Jamaica) This was one of those doors which photography opened up that I am very grateful for. I was still in college when I was called upon to work closely with Jamaican Grammy-Nominated Recording Reggae Artiste Protoje & his producer Winta James for the ‘Matter of Time’ Debut Album. Photographing these musical personalities laying-out lyrics on a Riddim in the same studio built by Bob Marley himself I remember thinking, “wow this is quite the path”. I was later invited to join Diggy and the Indignation band on the ‘Blood-Money California Tour’ where they preformed on many stages one of which the legendary Jimmy Hendrix set fire to his guitar then smashing it at the Monterey Pop Music Festival of 1967.
She ran her course, 2018. (Jost Van Dyke, BVI) Ferries run through the USVI & BVI (a chain of islands) to get natives and tourists where they need to be. This photo was taken some time ago. If memory is on my side, the vessel's name was "The Bomba Charger". The captain and crew would often race other ferries making the same run skipping across the waters to the next Island. These boats were very loud. To really lean into the experience there was the option to kick it on the top deck where you'd be subjected to occasional sea-blast. These boats would get bruised from the docs over time but took major damage during those years as hurricanes were reputable for blowing through the Caribbean during the summer and fall seasons. I captured her sitting easy on a mooring awaiting either repair or deconstruction.
My Aunt Alesha is one of the toughest Omegas I know. She would often work long hours in the "country" as she called it. Which was very rural areas on the island where she'd grow and tend to ground provisions to sell at the markets in town. Aunty was always happy to return to her home after a long day and share her stories and folklore from her experiences in the bush.
Some places seem frozen in time. Those places are a joy to photograph. I visit home every now and then to see family. I am especially feeling called back just to photograph the same roads a younger version of the self didn't fully absorb. I want to know the sunsets, trees, and old shanti's again. To look into the eyes of those who never left. To sip coco-tea just as the sun is making its arrival. Home is not far though. I can know it now. Between the eyebrows. I am here, here I am.
My family would often sail into Jost Van Dyke's 'Little Harbor' during the summer to spend a few nights. As a child it was always a very spooky place to be. The water was especially dark and there never seemed be many folks around. We'd have some of the best fish at a restaurant on the dock called Sidney's Peace and Love. The day of this photograph hiked up the mountain to take-in the small Islands presence.