This is Walker. He is probably one of the most inspiring people I have ever met, no joke. He lives in a small shack by the railroad tracks. I'm not sure the word "shack" does his home justice however. Yes, it is a shack upon first glance. Old rugs outside, a small "porch" and a tin roof. It sits in the back corner of an old abandoned concrete companies land, bang smack next to the railroad tracks. I've seen this shack before, and always made sure to steer clear. The first thing you notice is a weight bench outside, and to be honest, I had no inclination to get beaten up by a semi-homeless group of body builders. So for that reason, I always stayed far away from the place when going downtown to take photos.
I had been trying shoot Jordan's Mustang for a while now, and this was the day I finally got to. We met up and drove down to a spot I had been thinking of for the past few weeks. Consequently, this spot was the land that the shack was on. Halfway into the shoot, this guy comes wondering out of the shack and toward us, Budweiser in hand. We gave each other "the look," you know, as in "should we get the fuck out of there or what?" This man comes up to us and we ask if it's cool that we're here. He says of course it is, and makes a remark about how it was nice to see old cars like the mustang still being driven around. He then told us that it was his birthday. The mood instantly lightened as we wished him a happy birthday and ask if he'd like his picture taken with the Mustang, figuring that it would be a nice gesture to him. We told him to hop in, I give him a smoke and he posed by the car, loving every minute it.
He then invited us into his house. He told us how he came here from Florida, and of his past life involving some gnarly drug use and time in jail; 10 years to be exact. When I stepped inside, I felt overwhelmed by what I saw. Walker said that when he moved up here, he stayed in a homeless shelter for a while. He told us how much he despised being there, surrounded by people who didn't want to try to make something of their lives, who sat and complained, but didn't do anything to better their situation. So Walker up and left one day, found this dirt lot, and said to himself, "I'm gonna build me a lil' old house!" Well here it is, Walker has running water, a septic tank he dug himself, a dishwashing area outside, a separate room with a toilet, a bed, a fridge, and a damn fine porch in which he sits and listens to jazz as the sun sets.
He gave us each a beer and we sat with him outside, jazz humming in the background, and listened to his stories. Boy he liked to talk. One that comes to mind was about him getting in a fight with a girlfriend at the time, hopping in his car, "drinking that grandaddy corn liquor" and driving all the way to Chicago, telling us how he "buried the needle." A cop chased him at his cars top speed of 130mph for quite some time until the state line and Walker pulled over. He kept saying how he was clocked at going 130 when his speedo only had 120 on it, so he tried to get out of the ticket. I forget whether or not he actually did, but that's not important. The more we talked to him, the more I realized that Mr. Walker was full of wisdom. He had such a positive outlook on life, and had an uncanny ability to say things or tell stories that really hit home to me personally. He talked about how he didn't let his difficulties get in the way of living life, and enjoying it. He told us about how his time in jail was some of the worst in his life, but also about how much it made him think about life in general. He came out a completely different man, and has been completely clean ever since. We promised to bring him some prints of the pictures we took of him, and said our goodbyes. I can't really even figure out what more to say about him or what I learned, I just know that something inside changed after hangin' out with Walker for those few hours. Meeting someone with such a positive outlook is always inspiring, no matter what. I plan on taking the prints back to walker next week and chatting with him some more. Maybe I'll shoot some photos of him and the bike when it gets done.. haha
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