portrait of max

at first i wondered what it was like. to see through those eyes.

pale green-blue. point and shoot. piercing through the veil of all that was vanilla. beige. boring.

he saw in technicolor. a modern-day toulouse. saturated. infatuated. bright lights. rouge lips. making love to the moment with his cannon and his quest: for beauty. for drama. for all that was “fierce” and fashionable.

sitting around on a lazy saturday afternoon, he turned ordinary objects, people, places into emotions, stories, operatic moments. hipsters in wonderland, shot in the front yard amongst overgrown succulents and the LA sunshine. a carnie side show in a rented palm springs palace. decked out divas at the decadent viceroy.

his imagination danced in shadows and light. he shot leaves, vases, floors, furniture. interiors. exteriors. patterns. textures.

he shot everything. and nothing.

he was, by no means, an optimist. rose-tinted glasses? hell to the no. try bold-tinted glasses. he was seasoned in snark and the scenester celeb scoops. his love of drama only deepened with the cast of characters he met in lala land.

and his taste was not for everyone. glamorous. garish. provocative. polarizing. certainly not for the faint of heart.

but that was no matter. his vision was his own.

costumes. camp. collages. and above all, color. they all converged in these eyes. that saw the potential, the possibility, to elevate. any moment. at any time.

to him,

every surface was a canvas.

every window was a mirror.

every sidewalk was a runway.

every ordinary person—with a splash of red lipstick and some sultry staging—could emerge a supermodel or a washed up socialite or a delicious diva at the drop of a floppy sun hat.

statues were ancient sirens.

and his beloved cat, bruno, a prince, persian royalty, his highness in the hollywood hills.

to linger on beauty. to chase light. to devour color. to infuse into things or people a feeling. or a thought. or even better to create an entire story in a single frame.

that is what it was like to see. through his eyes.

and now through mine.