TACO BOOK

the highest vocation of photography is to explain man to man
Susan Sontag
GET CLOSE caution for your safety just can’t stop COMPOSITION we ran through those streets 15 heads on a single spliff FIND THE
LIGHT the void the freedom direct action just what the doctor ordered more doctors CAPTURE THE MOMENT none of us had shit
but each other each other each other REWIND
FOCUS and you will see next to a trash can, a girl sits smoking on the sidewalk, leaning on a spray painted dilapidated cement pillar all the signs
of urban decay, the graffiti reads ALONE, in That’s A Crazy One, Mel & High, FOCUS on the center of their activity N.Y.C. 19 90’s whether
it be Hot Dog all dressed up and eating cake, skating the Brooklyn banks or gazing at the skyline from the roof tops, the transparencies in these
photos allow us to grasp the rawness of the moment, havens of coffee mug lined counter tops, needles on the floor, blood splatter, FOCUS
the state or quality of having or producing a clear visual, not no rules but the street rules, the violence of poverty, i ain’t got shit.
FOCUS to pay particular attention to, and it is here that the photos transcend and rather than get stuck in the negative, death drugs sex
and incarceration, no, leave that for the pervert Larry, KIDS and the Hollywood shit.
FOCUS from the Latin meaning fireplace or hearth, the warmth of the colors and shades that reflect their life, no police in the park, the heart
of a home, High’s place on St. Mark’s Ave., a little sis complaining, friends who had each other’s back for life , from where the heat radiates,
Mel & High with this photographic memoir have captured on film what it means to have a family, which unlike the urban decay of their surroundings
blossomed and simply is beautiful, none of us had shit but each other.
FOCUS Love.
Dr. Payne
January 2017