Vegas, making new friends, and creatives that are way more interesting than I am. 

and to be fair to myself, I’m on my path to see every corner of this weird world.

When I’m seeking new friends, these are my internal questions: 
 
1. Do I find them funny (and do they enjoy my humor)?
2. Will they include me on adventures (and will they let me take them too)?
3. Are they going to teach me something cool (and be open to all the cool or weird stuff I have binge read)?

It’s usually an adventure or teaching me something. Don’t get me wrong, I love these.

It’s just really hard to find someone that makes me laugh. Like really, really howl. It’s only happened once while on the road in Arizona. I instantly fell in love with them, and realized that’s the ticket. That’s the top of my new friends food pyramid. It’s so hard to do, but if you do, you’ll have me in your pocket.

I just want to laugh. 

I want to be weird all the time, and honest, even if it hurts.

And I want them to make me laugh and teach me about cool crap. New bands. Ask me to go on a weekender. Light shit on fire.

Be ourselves and thrive in the day and the night.

Smoke a joint with a fellow mom and talk through problems and support one another, while our kids are taken care of elsewhere….then I can go in a spiral about energetic exchange because it’s all I think about and that’s weird but someone might wanna know. And most of my new friends do.

But let’s recognize that the worst part of breaking ties with the past and deciding to make new bonds: the loneliness. Holy smokes. And the day I said out loud in the car, “I’m lonely.” I felt like a loser, cried, and realized I needed new friends. I sulked, then got to work.
 
The usual: smoking and relentlessly running in my garage saying: I know what I don’t want, but what do I want?
 
Laughter, knowledge, and adventure with authentic folks with honest intentions.
 
Open conversations about personal traumas, that naturally(?) leads to Greek mythology and the story of Persephone and my plot twist theory. Some people care about this like I do, I just gotta find them. And for the record, this is also a great way to segway off a brutal topic. 
 
And the most important relationship ethics of:
 
Assumed discretion, respect for boundaries, trust, and safety. 
The love you take is equal to the love you make. I NEED A LOT but I also have a lot to give.
Anyways, topic change:
 
This is the work of Nan Golden, an incredible and honest photographer. 
 
Her experiences and portraits have such a level of honesty, that you can smell the room.
 
You can feel the thick chemical and sexual dependency lurking in the air. 
 
She made and monetized art from the traumas. She inspired some 27 year old in a class at Pittsburgh filmmakers, sitting crisscross applesauce on the carpet. I’ve been working up the courage to find myself in uncomfortable situations, and in weirder corners of this world, to experience authenticity like this. It’s risky and unknown to me, and most of my loved ones.
 
But I gotta go for it, you know, when I’m not a 1st grade chaperone or family photographer. 

And speaking of inspirations, Dylan Vitone was my professor, and a hell of a good influence and teacher. He walked into class and dumped a bunch of photography books on the floor, and I found Nan Goldin. 

Dylan is so talented, humble, and real.

So is his work. Plus he seems like a great dad and partner.

He also teaches at CMU, and I like to joke that this was the closest my GPA would ever get to a Carnegie Mellon classroom and I’m taking it.

He talked me out of chasing a more corporate related avenue of photography for the money. I literally have never been motivated by tons of money, and I hate corporate mentality.

What was I thinking? Thanks dude. 

Unrelated but since Brandon Flowers is from Vegas, and because Johnny Cash:

Here’s Elliott’s approach to making new friends:

It’s actually a pretty good and straight forward approach.

We were a little concerned about the sleepover on the first night, but at least he’s direct.