A Story of a Thanksgiving Long Ago

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, but for the past 14 years it has been the anniversary of my move to New York.
Fourteen years ago I hitched a ride with my good friend Erik Carlson and moved in the middle of the night, with one suitcase, for good.

The summer before that Thanksgiving, I interned in the city for Annie Liebovitz and Josef Astor. Luckily, I was able to sublet my apartment while I finished up my last quarter at R.I.T. All I had was the apartment, my suitcase, a brand new B.F.A. and the hope that I could get a job with Annie. When I talk about that time, I always say that ignorance is bliss and in my case it was true. Everything fell into place, Annie hired me and I started my career in photography a week later; I had no idea!

Fast forward one year to the next Thanksgiving: I went from green college graduate to battle hardened photo assistant. We had just wrapped shooting Siegfried and Roy and the white tigers for the marquee of the Mirage in Las Vegas. For various reasons the shoot lasted for 23 hours, causing me to miss my flight home to Ohio the day before. I had an awful cold; I was propped up on cold medicine and coffee while I wandered through the casino at 5:30 a.m. looking for food before leaving for the airport. When I got to the airport I found out that I had been upgraded to first class. On the plane it was just a lonely looking businessman and me. The stewardess knew I was sick and just kept bringing me bloody marys. This was the backdrop for one of the most surreal days of my life. As I walked into my parent’s house it hit me how far I had come in one year.

My first year in New York was all about work and more importantly learning. I went from the White House to P.L.O. headquarters in Tunis and everywhere in between. There are way too many stories from this time in my life to recount here, but if you buy me a beer I would be glad to share them at a future date.

I have much to be thankful for both in life and photographically and
Thanksgiving has been a great time to reflect on both.