March 27th, 2007
Boston, Massachusetts

'Butch'

Walking the streets of the Bostonian suburbs, I turned a corner and bumped into this man. He was sitting on a blue bucket, on top of a stack of newspapers, waving a copy around in the air. I walked up to him and asked him if I could have a portrait of him - and he replied 'Well if I can have something back...'. I asked him what that 'something' might be, and he said 'Five bucks'. I gave him 4.75. After a couple of minutes of talking about the scandinavian countries, official languages, and the percentage of foreigners in Denmark, he let me take the picture, and I thanked him and said goodbye. As I turned to walk away, he grabbed me by the arm and refreshed my memory on the subject of pictures, release-forms, getting sued and about having my 'camera taken by force and smashed against the pavement' if I 'did not take the right precautions'.

Behind my back, I kept a firm hold on my camera and prepared to duck and run.

He smiled awkwardly, let me go and told me to have a good day - and I picked up the pace.