“Being at the right place at the right time. In truth, it’s his sense of possibility that makes these scenes appear, a magnetic field for moments meant to be shared by someone who knows how to keep their precious essence intact.”
This quote from Anybody, Anyway by Chad Moore serves as the basis for my homage series. As a photographer, Moore has spent years documenting his vision of what “coming of age” feels like. This photo book, in particular, features a series of individuals unapologetically being themselves and interacting with the youthfulness that encapsulates them in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The images are sporadic and random, both in their placement and content. His work consists mainly of scenes that feel like parts of different films or movies, yet somehow come together, as if Moore is the narrator of all these different stories.
Similarly, I followed his route. I spent time with my friends on little adventures in the same neighborhood where Moore shot his work. We wandered through random alleys, rooftops, and more. I only directed my subjects when I felt that the environment matched the feeling I wanted to capture, whether that was through lighting, graffiti, views, colors, or other elements. I realized that the environment I live in holds nostalgia in almost everything. Every single walk I took had moments that resembled something from my past, or a movie I watched, or even a book I had read. Though these moments were sporadic and varied, I found them notable and important to document.
The familiarity, glow, and aliveness of Chad Moore’s photos often appear as happy accidents. His work has the power to manipulate time, controlling the fabric of what makes us and the world feel as if it will last forever. Though his work isn’t officially categorized as cinematic photography, it shares many of the same qualities. There is no formal way to explain this, much like how beauty can’t be defined in words. Just as you cannot describe what is beautiful, you cannot explain what makes Moore’s scenarios cinematic. There is no explicit narrative, yet the viewer might find themselves asking questions like, “Is this the bedroom of a girl who is interested in architecture? Who gave the flowers? Who is peering into her room? Are the objects in the room a reflection of what she loves?”
Chad Moore’s approach also manipulates the concept of time. The fleeting sunlight in his images, hitting the edge of flowers perfectly, contributes to a larger concept: the moment is transient. There is more information in these images than just the visual appeal; they convey that what we see will not last forever.
Ultimately, the project I created embodies the title of his photo book itself—“Anybody Anyway.” I gave myself the freedom to not be pressured into “creating an image” with fancy equipment and props, but rather to allow whatever occurred within my field of vision to simply be captured. It is, quite literally, anybody, anything, anyway.
