1986-1987

In 1986, I took a break from skipping classes at NYU and went back to Europe, first France and then Ireland, where I worked from September to December as a waiter in a pub-restaurant in Dublin.  Just before leaving Ireland, a co-worker and I drove out to Galway and then to Connemara to see the wild west.

Back in the States, I moved to Boston and enrolled at UMass/Boston in January 1987.

A note on the self-portraits, of which there are four presented here.  When I looked through these negatives, I began to ask myself was I really as self-absorbed as all that to be taking multiple pictures of myself.  Also, here I am a third of a century later choosing to present these same photos, so do I not risk being seen as still the same self-absorbed person I was then?  On reflection, I think there is/was something more to it than just that.  It strikes me that I was a pretty confused young man, uncertain of where I was going or where life was taking me, and these self-portraits were literally an attempt to look at myself, to know myself better.  The choice to include them is based on two factors: first, they are good photos; second, they are representative of what I was doing then.

To be honest, I don't know what happened to 1985.  I am pretty sure I was still taking photos, but probably not as intensively as previously.  I did travel to Europe in the summer of that year, but I remember very purposefully leaving the camera behind because I wanted to write about the experiences (which I did) and not rely on the camera for my memories (which I confess I now regret).  Also, some negatives have been lost over the years.