As I was walking through the Italian Festival grounds today, taking stock of the vendors preparing their tents for opening day, this seemingly homeless fella came up to me and demanded I take his picture. His pose seemed to be him proudly showing off his tiny Adidas backpack and his Victory Sweatshirt. But I wanted him to smile for the camera as well. And this is what I got…

In the end, without wanting to see the resulting image on the back of the camera, he high-fived me and went on his merry way.

Update: I did come across him later that day, standing in front of a downtown liquor store. I showed him the images on my phone. He was indifferent to the results. But he wasn’t angry, which was good. I don’t really think he remembered our encounter earlier in the day. I think, on our second encounter, he saw me as a means to get him his drug of choice, alcohol. He kept mumbling something and showed me some money he had in his pocket. Probably banned from the store. No, I did not…