“What do you make of all this?”
“I think it is interesting that you want to document strangers and if photography is your artform then that is the best means of communicating what you’re experiencing day to day… and I think it might be particularly interesting what you choose to document, because there is always this constant stimulus around you… so you have to go through that and make a decision about what you think is important or what you think is interesting or interesting looking. There’s just a ton of choices you have to make, constantly, as a photographer."

“What are you most grateful for?”
“Waking up every day and having family.”

Drumming on Rosa Parks Circle.

“If you could give a large group of people a piece of advice what would it be?”
“Be part of a community.”
“Are you part of a community?”
“Yes! this one. I live downtown, go to events downtown, I love it!”

“This is my girlfriend.”
“What’s your favorite thing about him?”
"His laugh.”
“What is your favorite thing about her?”
“She’s spontaneous.”

“Do you have any regrets?”

“I regret not traveling more in my 20s.”

“What are you grateful for?”

“My family.”

[meanwhile, the kids rolled their eyes and let out deep sighs as I kept them from their business.]

"How would you like to be remembered?"

"I don’t know."

“What did you want you want to be when you grew up, when you were a kid?”
“A veterinarian.”
“Are you a veterinarian now?”
“Haha, no.”
“How do you feel about that?”
“I feel okay about it, I like what I do now. I manage a restaurant.”

“Can I take your picture?”
“What for?”
“I’m doing this project called ‘Humans of Grand Rapids’ where I photograph strangers on the street and ask them a random question.”
“Well, you can certainly ask me a question.”
“That wouldn’t really work without a picture too though.”
“Hmm, ask me the question first.”

“If younger you visited current you, from the past, what would he say about you now?”
“Start taking karate and yoga earlier… I wanted to make sure your question wasn’t going to be dumb before I let you take my picture...Wait what would I say to younger me or what would younger me say to me?”
“What would young you say?”
“Shit that’s a good question…”
“Do you think they’d be satisfied or disappointed or?”
“The younger version would say, I’m glad you’ve changed from what you were to what you are now.”

“If you could give the whole world a message, what would it be?”
“Try to live.”
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“I’m surviving, but I’m trying to live too.”

“What is something that has changed for you?”
Sunglasses: “I just got back from Afghanistan.”
White hat: “He’s gotta much bigger change than myself, I’m just going from college to, I dunno like, white collar society and that type of deal.”

“Can I take your picture?”
“Sure, we’re not big on privacy, we’re kind of sitting on a roof.”
“What is your favorite thing about the person sitting next to you?”
“Do I get to choose which person?”
“Yeah.”
“Haha, this is awesome!”
“Well, Kelly, my favorite thing is that she’s a free spirit.”
“Oh that’s so generic”
“No but she really is. She don’t give no shits”
“My favorite thing about Alisa is that she’s always so happy and she’s always in such a wonderful mood and always puts everyone else in a wonderful mood.”
“My favorite thing about Ronald here, is that he could care less about what everyone else wants him to do to be happy…”
“He couldn’t care less…”
“Right, he couldn’t… he physically tried and can’t… he can’t.”
“It’s true!”
“The thing I love most about Jacob here is that he can do anything...anything he sets his mind to. It’s fucking incredible.”
“Thanks dude.”
“And he has a great beard!”

Getting the story in East Hills

“This is my son Sirus.”
“What do you like about your dad?”
a pause.
“Sirus is the strong silent type.”
“What is your favorite thing about him?”
“He’s really creative, I really dig that.”

"What does the future look like?"
"The Twilight Zone."