Best Buds

This is one of my favorite photos of all time for more reasons than just a cool image. I had started a photography program at Oakland Community College a year before and met my two best friends in the world there but I didn’t know it then. Rob is the head of the photography department. Rich and I were students. We now call ourselves the Unholy Trinity. Back then Rob was the cool professor and Rich was a kid in a Bad Brains t-shirt that I chatted with over some prints in the lab. Despite the 10 year age difference between each of us we all bonded over music, passing mixed CDs to each other and eventually getting together for some acoustic sessions and performances. The last time we played together was for Rich’s 40th, just before Covid hit. Really missing those jam sessions. This photo was made in 2002 at Snow Jam in Detroit. Rich had just started playing in the Suicide Machines earlier that year. This shot has that movie-still feeling to it. I was shooting film at the time (didn’t switch over until 2008) and my color choice was usually push processing Fuji 800NPZ which had a killer feel to it.