THE FRONT DESK

“This was on a weekend afternoon, probably. I just remember he was a good guy, a little down on his luck. He’d gotten divorced, he was a little disillusioned. But he wanted to open up a roller rink in Pico Rivera. That’s not a dream I was ever encouraged to have — but it’s his dream, and why not? It’s about our humanity — who they wanted to be, what they wanted to do, their goals. These guys, the management, when people would go to them and say, ‘What’s this photographer all about?’ they’d encourage people to participate. That’s key for a photographer — it’s key that people trust me and I trust them and they know that they’re safe. He was completely supportive of me.”