The name of the man in this photo is Adrian. I met him whilst driving home from work on a sunny Thursday afternoon in 2017. Upon meeting him our conversation was brief but humorous and fruitful. He was walking along a roadway with a bottle of Pepsi mixed with alcohol in his hand and a slight stagger.
I slowed down to check if he was okay and as he turned and looked in the car with a faint disoriented smile, an image of a clock and mask hit me. I immediately pulled over because I knew something was building imaginatively.
I asked him if he was okay to which he nodded gleefully. I expressed to him what I do and how seeing his face had inspired me, to which he responded in our Jamaican dialect, “Yuh a funny man? Why mi face haffi inspire yuh?”
In English terminology, his response translates as,
“Are you gay? Why did my face inspire you?” This was spoken in jest.
I chuckled and said, “No, I’m an artist, and technically I didn’t admire your face, it just gave me an idea.”
We both had a good laugh and a fruitful conversation ensued.
I expressed the idea to him and he became thrilled to be a part of it with the condition that I mirror an aspect of his life story in the shoot, pay him and buy him a drink of rum. I showed up the next day but without the rum and we ran into a little problem, he was unfocused and seemed troubled. After trying to shoot for the first couple minutes nothing came to fruition.
I asked him what was wrong and he expressed that he needed a drink to be steady, get the edge off.
I told him I couldn’t do that because it goes contrary to my art and why I create.
“I cannot give you something that would harm you so I can help others.”
He then responded by saying, “This one bottle will HELP more people than it will harm me. I will sober up, if not, I will buy it myself with the money you’ll give me.” A bit of laughter erupted amongst us but eventually, I conceded as he was quite an intelligent man.
This was his story.
He died the following year in 2018.
His death wasn’t alcohol-related but his message was that LIFE is a leaf that’s falling from the branch of a low hanging tree. Live fully before it hits the ground because time cannot be harnessed.
LIFE is a leaf that’s falling from the branch of a low hanging tree. Live fully before it hits the ground because time cannot be harnessed.
Photo and Story by Adrian McDonald
Philosophical Photographer | Film Director
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