My roommate (also a freshman from California) and I slept through the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center, only to be awakened by the blaring of both our phones (landlines) ringing and ringing over and over. I groggily answered, who could be calling both of us this early in the morning. My mother was frantically on the other end asking why we were sleeping through a terrorist attack. A terriorist attack? Huh? A plane crashed into the WTC and they are saying its a terriorist attack. It must be an accident. They are really tall you know… Awake now, my roommate and I began to get ready for class, glued to my the news on my television.

At some point, my roommate left our dorm for class only to return after the second plane hit and both towers had fallen. She left again to go give blood and I left with a group of friends and my disposable camera, of course, to go to campus. Having spent the morning watching it all on the news, not expecting the damage to be so destructive, we wanted to feel for ourselves what had happened. So we walked 10 blocks downtown on Broadway, against the hoard of people covered in soot walking uptown, away from the fallen towers.

As we walked, a massive cloud of dust was rising high above downtown Manhattan. My disposable camera could not quite capture the cloud for what it really was. And when I finally developed the photos, I was disappointed that the images just looked like a really foggy day.

So in 2007 when I found the photographs below, I couldn’t help but feel excited. They felt like the photos I failed to capture. I found them one day. I had been walking around Park Slope and I came across some books that someone had left on their stoop to share with the community. I chose to take The Alienist by Caleb Carr, even though I wasn’t completely interested but since it was free it looked good enough. Once at home, as I was adding the book to my shelf the prints fell out. Three of the images had been captured on September 11, 2001. I couldn’t believe it. On closer look at the photos, I noticed that they were taken at Washington Square Park and on West 4th Street. The photographer was on the NYU campus exactly where I was when they captured these images.

These photographs have become a gift to my memory. And I am so grateful for the photographer who forgot they were in that book. If you are reading, write and I will send them to you. (PS I remember the street I found them on, so no fakes!)

x AK

This shot taken from the Staten Island ferry was on the same roll of film.

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After graduating from NYU, I attended the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies where I studied Documentary Photography. Photography had always fascinated me but it wasn’t until my last semester in undergrad that I finally enrolled in my first photo course, “Intro to Photography.” The high cost of the camera that was required for the class kept me away. But I knew that I would never have another chance to take a photography class for free. So I finally took the class. (Although technically, it wasn’t free since full-time students already pay to take those credits whether they use them or not.) During this time, a friend noticed my enthusiasm for the art and told me about her friend who had completed the Salt photography program. So I applied and was accepted.

In some ways, deciding to attend Salt was my way of postponing the inevitable. Getting a job. I had spent 4 years in college and still had no idea what career path to pursue. Once I returned to the city, friends immediately asked “Now that you’ve attended photography school, what are you going to do with it?” Since I still had not completely committed to photography, peer pressure made me commit to an administrative position at WireImage. But through that job, I was able to meet professional photographers and observe the business side, like sales and contracts and bookings (the part they don’t teach you in school). I started to assist photographers and shoot different events with them, some red carpets and celebrity parties, and also some weddings and bar mitzvahs. One of the photographers even hired me to go to Nigeria on assignment as a photographer!

From there, I accepted a job at Management Artists Organization as a Photo Producer/Assistant Agent. I loved this job. Loved it! I produced photo shoots for many foreign fashion magazines. A few of my favorites were an editorial for the Vogue Italia Black Issue, Gwyneth Paltrow in GQ UK, and Mariah Carey in ID Magazine. Finally, I was on the right career path! Or so I thought… Then the recession began. The photographers I worked with were booking less jobs. And I was laid off. Completely heartbroken, I had no clue what to do next. The only thing I was sure of was that I needed to pay my NYC rent, I owned some really expensive photography equipment, and I had the most fun assisting photographers at weddings.

So thats where it all began. But there were still so many other things for me to figure out, like “how in the world do I convince someone to hire me to shoot their wedding??” I will save that story for the next installment. Here are some of the images that were included in my final projects at Salt.

♥ AK

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Brunch flow.

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Ummm… (Okay so, I know what the Constitution says, but why can’t we all just get along? A topic for another blog post.)

Anyways, what happened next was a moment of awareness — “Oh yeah! I live in Texas now!” — These moments are coming in regular intervals, like last week, when I missed Modern Family because in the Central Timezone it comes on an hour earlier. (I mean, do television programmers have a reason to believe that residents in the Central timezone go to bed an hour earlier than the rest of the country or something?)

The best part of meeting Texas, was my last weekend as a resident of New York City, when my wonderful friends @sunserae and @amairous threw me a surprise going away bash. EB even flew in from Florida for the party! And SE came in from Boston! There are no words to describe how that celebration made me so extremely proud of my last 10 years and even more ecstatic about what the next 10 hold. And I cannot thank these beautiful ladies enough for opening my eyes to that.

Why Texas?
Because I’m ready for a change in my lifestyle.
Because I want to be closer to family.
And because my story is always adventurous and never ending.

So instead of saying goodbye to New York in this post, I decided to say Hello to Texas! It’s nice to meet you! We have a lot of catching up to do.

xx AK

This is my first cup of tea in Texas in one of the mugs they all signed to send me off on my new adventure.

And for some laughs… my surprised face! All the images below were captured by Marcus Robinson.

“EB, What are YOU doing here??”

Girlfriends!

Hello Texas!

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Over the years, we made a couple other trips out to Vegas, including many New Year’s Eves and my week long 21st birthday celebration, but none would prove to be as memorable or impactful as the first, the first plane ride and the first unknown city.

My last trip to Vegas was a couple weeks ago. I spent those days reconciling what the city had become to my family and I. Two of my brothers graduated from UNLV. Las Vegas is where they found their voices and figured out what they wanted out of life. Las Vegas is also where they learned to appreciate the ups, and fight through the downs of life. And during that trip, Las Vegas is where I began to open my heart and find the courage to understand what it means to love the way that God loves, and forgive the way that God forgives.

This is what I saw while walking through the familiarity of The Strip.

~AK

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Miles and I just came in from a romp in the park. I am sitting here working, studying, watching the snow fall and eating my first PB&J sandwich in the last decade. Wondering, since when did these become so tasty?! Could it be the honey wheat bread and green tea addition?

And look what we found in Marcus Garvey Park, a snowman! What?! How cool are the kids in Harlem USA for this?!

~AK

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Just in case you’ve been living under a rock, or even if you’re like me and just want to smile, here is the video. (If you do not see it below, hit Refresh till you do.) While I watched the video, all I kept thinking was… “I really hope they prepped the photographer beforehand to be ready.”

~AK

AK

Another shout out today goes to Texas! I went to Grand Prairie for Thanksgiving to visit my family. We had so much fun. The southern hospitality is unbelievable. Seriously. People were so helpful and polite. While boarding my return flight, the airport staff reinforced for me what I love about TX. They actually made the friendly skies, friendly.

Sometimes going through all those security requirements can make me grumpy, especially at the end of  a trip when I am already in a sad mood after saying my goodbyes.  But  there was the security guard to save the day! She saw my hands full and said “Wait, let me get that for you.” Then, watched and waited for my carry-on to come out the xray machine, rolled it around to the front and waited till I put my shoes, belt, jewelry, sweater etc… back on to hand it to me. I guess it also helped, that DFW wasn’t nearly as busy as I have seen JFK on a quiet day. But regardless, after that, it didn’t even rumple my feathers when my flight was delayed a couple hours. All that, only to land in NYC, when a fellow passenger decided that it would be nice to drop my coat on my head from the overhead bin because it was blocking her bag. I took a deep breath and repeated to myself “kill ‘em with kindness” a couple times. Then smiled and said Thank You. Here’s to hoping, that kindness will turn around her grumpiness and she shares it with someone.

Here are a few photos from my trip. Happy to get back to business!

~AK

Making the greens and gizzard gravy…

Miles and his friend Brownie waiting patiently for droppings. (Using the word friend is a stretch if you know Miles.)

The meal!

Cousin Jessica and Cousin Martel approving.

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