Cleveland, OH (August 2008)

copyright: Aaron Douglas

Like many, I tend to be fascinatingly attracted to the “bad boy”. He’s the type of guy with the hot temper who looks like he could take a hit. And when it comes to having these guys in front of my camera this attraction couldn’t be any stronger.

I met Indian at a bus stop on West 25th Street and Clark in the heart of Cleveland’s Latino neighborhood. I studied him precariously as he bumped fists and exchanged head nods with all the dudes that walked by. It was obvious that he was a well-known fixture with a reputation in his community. His hyper-masculine stance intimidated me, but I eventually worked up the nerve to ask him for a picture.

Clearly I was a misfit in this neighborhood and he told me he didn’t want any of his buddies to see him posing for a picture. So he led me to a condemned, boarded-up house behind a porn shop. I followed him with apprehension but was too intrigued by the thrill of capturing his portrait to have second thoughts about my surroundings. We squeezed through a hole in the  wooden fence surrounding the property and shot away!

He told me he got the scratches and bruises from a fight, and he worked in a bar. And that was all I got to learn about Indian on my street photography adventure that day.