Name a risk

I have been seeking ways to continue growing creatively, and its funny how when you do this, things start to happen that would otherwise be overlooked.

So I took a trip to NYC to show my new portfolio book at Fotoworks. The review happened in a beautiful studio in Chelsea, where I met with 30 great minds over 3 days -- art buyers, photo editors and reps. It felt like a crash course in how to talk about my work and why I can't stop making it - and I really, REALLY liked it.

Highline Billboard by Maurizio Cattelan & Pierpaolo Ferrari 

One person asked me to answer this question:

Name one or two times when you took a risk – either professionally or personally and explain what was the risk; why was it risky for you; how did it turn out; and what did you learn from it?

Here is what I said straight off my head:

I have been taking risks all my life, without much thought or reserve, to make my everyday existence more genuine.

When I was 24, I sold my stuff to buy a roundtrip ticket to Egypt. I took my camera and 100 rolls of film, shaved off my long hair so that people wouldn’t want to mess with me or steal my gear. Basically I transformed into a street kid, between semesters at Ryerson University.

I met up with a friend and we traveled and I shot. We hitch-hiked through the desert, crossed many boarders, I wouldn’t let the armed soldiers put my film through the xray machines (stood up to the military dudes and said no way!) We hitch-hiked through the desert, slept on the side of the road at night, slept on rooftops, on boat decks, in bug infested hotels and hostels. My favorite day was when we swam with a wild dolphin under a full moon eclipse. We walked the streets of Cairo, jumped the fence at the pyramid (did you know theres a golf course for the wealthy right beside it). I love love water - we swam in the Red Sea every day for 6 weeks - just diving down to the bottom and floating up in the clear salty waters.

We hitch-hiked through the West Bank without problems, soaked in the Dead Sea with the salt burning our sores. On our last day I crashed a motorcycle in Greece, breaking my arm without knowing it, and drinking homemade opium tea to get over the pain. I came home with amazing images. Got a cast on my arm. No one stole my camera. It was a good 4 months.