PAX East 2010

PAX was described to me as the largest video game convention in the U.S. second only to E3 (which is much more of an industry party and has a finer corporate edge to it). I love, love, love nerd culture. I grew up on video games, and have many fond memories watching my brother play Zelda 2: A Link to the Past and fail miserably at beating it (totally not made for 8-12 year olds). PAX was a great experience for me and a total nerd heaven where nerds from all around could come and feel a sense of camaraderie. At PAX we were normal, and totally in our comfort zone. One of the genius elements I found about PAX was the abundance of bean bag chairs called SUMOs sprawled around the long hallways of the Hynes Convention Center in Boston where the event was held. While originally intended for use while playing rented portable games, however one a many nerds (myself included) took the opportunity to use these bags of awesome to nurse that "video game hangover."

Rolling with Heat

This is my friend Ivan, aka Heat Rock, or just Heat. I have known this guy for years and years now and just a few weeks ago I finally found out his real name. Such is a typical story among bboys, we communicate through our shared common interest for the dance yet seldom connect beyond it. I have found that many bboys prefer not to talk about real life with each other, instead we all find solace in the act of dancing, I'm sure each bboy dances for their own reason. I have had this idea to make work on break dancing ever since I started photographing, to shoot a documentary that does breaking justice is my dream. My goal is to show the human behind the superhuman, how behind every bboy is a complex individual for whom I feel a kind of kinship towards because of our shared experiences. This picture marks the first step towards achieving my dream.