Late last year, my childhood best friend killed himself in his boyhood bedroom with a cheap shotgun from the sporting goods store. When I got the phone call, I was walking in the forest behind my mothers apartment. As I listened to the details of his death, I saw a deer watching me from within a bush just five feet away. I instinctively grabbed my camera and photographed it. When I developed the film a few days later, there was no deer on the negative.
The next day, Rusty called me to tell me that his beloved dog Jake had died. He said that on Jake’s last day, while they were out walking the fields on their farm, a deer came out of the woods and approached Jake snout to snout, and teased him to give chase. He said that the deer was playful and without fear. Later that afternoon, Rusty looked out the window and saw Jake dead underneath an oak tree. He said that the deer was an angel who came to take him away.
I live behind an abandoned forest that used to be a landfill. It’s a two hundred acre fenced in area that over the past few years has had a burgeoning deer population that have outgrown the forest and are venturing out into the city. Earlier this year I watched a young buck die in an apartment buildings backyard two miles away. The deer had wandered too far into the city and gotten lost. A group of neighbors gathered around the backyard watching the deer take its last breaths as white foam spilled from its mouth. My neighbor and I had spent the previous few weeks following this buck around and he let us get very close to him. We would feed him underneath the overpass and cut holes in the fence for him to walk through.
A few months later, the city began bulldozing the forest for development. They flattened the entire two hundred acres leaving building sized piles of timber laying neatly on the freshly exposed ground. The machinery drove the deer away from the only land they have ever known. They are now permanently taking refuge underneath the overpass and the railroad tracks that border the edge of the city.
A few months later, the city began bulldozing the forest for development. They flattened the entire two hundred acres leaving building sized piles of timber laying neatly on the freshly exposed ground. The machinery drove the deer away from the only land they have ever known. They are now permanently taking refuge underneath the overpass and the railroad tracks that border the edge of the city.
There’s a homeless man that lives in a tent next to my apartment building. I watch him play saxophone outside of my second floor window. He set up his camp where the deer now live; underneath the freeway overpass, next to the railroad tracks that run parallel to my building. I listen to him play his instrument and watch him walk around picking up the trash that people throw out of their car windows from the highway above.
I’ve approached him on a number of occasions to try to photograph him. He lies to me every time telling me that he’s not the one playing the saxophone. I tell him that I think he plays beautifully, and that he looks amazing playing it from my apartment window.
This morning I woke up to a group of police and paramedics pulling the mans body out of his tent. The officer told me that it smelled like he had been dead for a few days.
I’ve approached him on a number of occasions to try to photograph him. He lies to me every time telling me that he’s not the one playing the saxophone. I tell him that I think he plays beautifully, and that he looks amazing playing it from my apartment window.
This morning I woke up to a group of police and paramedics pulling the mans body out of his tent. The officer told me that it smelled like he had been dead for a few days.