Going Back To A Painful Time in My Life When A Camera Was The Only Friend I Had

When I was 16, I had nothing. No friends. Nobody to hang out with. The only friend I had was the camera around my neck and the 12 or 24 exposures on a roll of Kodak film, because I could not afford the full 36.

I would stalk this place where people were having so much fun. The family I never had. The food I could not afford. And I would hide in the shadows and point my camera at people living lives I did not get to experience.

When I go back and walk those same streets, that same boardwalk, I feel the same emotion I felt as a kid, longing for that place.

I shot this before it had a name. It was not called street photography yet.

And I loved it then as much as I love it now.