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Good morning. It’s September 5, 2010. I’m always speaking about my photography, taking pictures all day, all night, the parties. It’s pretty much what I do. But another thing I do, I sell cameras in New York City. I’ve been doing it part-time for 25 years.

Right now, I’m in Midtown because in Chinatown, three city blocks were closed down because of illegal activity with illegal purses and watches. That was all closed down and the store I was in has big troubles so I had to come back to Midtown. It’s a lot different than when I was there 20 years ago and 10 years ago.

I work a couple of days a week for a Pakistani. I work a couple of days a week for a strict orthodox Jewish Lebanese guy and then a Muslim-Lebanese. These guys are tyrants. But I’m very good at what I do so they put up with my shenanigans or my outdoor photography.

But they also complain a lot. The main thing I have to do is to convince them that I can bring people in from the street that when they come in if I wasn’t there and then sell them some camera so they could pay me a decent salary and let me have my own way.

It’s working out pretty well now except they’re playing their games. These three stores I work in are like pirate ships. There’s sales force and they are pirates. The captain of the ship which is the owner is like Captain Bligh and it’s difficult.

But anyway, getting back to yesterday – it was a weekend, Saturday. There’s lots of different photography because there’s no real locals going back and forth to work. That’s a hustle bustle of the businessman or secretary talking quickly, talking into a cellphone.

That’s another funny thing. Everyone’s holding a cellphone or everyone’s holding an iPod. Tern years ago when I was doing this, nobody had a cellphone. There were some people with CD players in their own little world. But this cellphone thing and texting – everyone’s walking around like robots.

I’ve got to find people just walking down the street naturally, it’s hard. Everyone’s on the phone with either an argument or trying to find out something or just having a conversation. I guess there’ll be a new section on Portraits of New York – different expressions on cellphone.

[audio:100905-2.mp3]
Getting back in Midtown again, taking photographs, I get to see people I even see for a long time.

There are a lot of homeless people that I remember from 15 years ago that are in that area of Penn Station, Port Authority – the same people from 15 years ago – I see them. So I say to myself, these guys have been living on the streets for 15 years and I think most are alcoholics, it’s amazing how tough the body is. It’s really something.

I was thinking, I’m out on the streets seeing everybody all the time. I think I view the people more than the police do when I really could see people that are in different areas and sometimes the homeless people that collect bottles and cans, they go off from one end in Manhattan to the other – I see them a lot. I’m seeing the same people for 15 years. The human body is one tough machine. That’s all I’ve got to say.
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