People have stories. Photographing people you get to hear some of those stories.
Sometimes the shoot itself gives you a story.

Here are two…….

Mando

When I’m looking for people to photograph I’ll often go to places where folks hang out:
laundromats, car washes, gas stations, barbershops, garages, places like that.

I stopped by a garage in Westmoreland, California. Met Mando and his coworker. We
talked about the weather, the war and stuff like that. I was totally struck by Mando’s
face. I really wanted to take his picture. After a while I asked him if I could. He was
quite reserved, almost shy, and told me: “No”.

Now, usually when someone says no to my request to shoot them I say: “Fine, no biggie”,
or something along those lines. But I thought this guy’s face was too interesting for me
to give up so easily.

So I said to him: “That’s okay. I can’t help it if you’re a pussy”. I figured I’d either get
the shot or get a lug wrench upside the head.

He looked at me and said: “Okay, just let me go wash my face.”

I liked his face dirty but settled for what he offered. While he was in getting cleaned up
his coworker said to me: “You know why he’s letting you take his picture? Because you
called him a pussy”.

I said: “I know”.

Lobie Tillis

Lobie lives in Panther Burn, Mississippi. By herself, in a trailer.

I asked her if she’s always lived in Panther Burn. She told me she was born there but moved
to Chicago with her husband, where they both worked for many years. She told me she moved
back to Panther Burn because her mother, who lived there, was sick.

Here’s Lobie: “I axed my husband to come back to Panther Boin (how she pronounced “Burn”)
with me, so’s I could look after my momma. He said to me he was gonna rest (stay) in Chicago,
weren’t gonna move back to Panther Boin. So I left him. I come back here. You can always get
another man, you ain’t got but one momma”.

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Thanks Tobin for making me this groovy graffiti tag that I’m going to use in my e-mail signature.

Tobin’s an ex-assistant of mine, now a photographer in Toronto. See his work at tobingrimshaw.com