When I was in second grade, my family hosted an AFS exchange student from Belgium. My family had suffered the tragic loss of my 16 year old brother, two years earlier; and having Philippe in our lives was an absolute blessing for everyone. Especially me. He was patient and understanding, he let me me a big part of his life here in the US.

Philippe introduced me to photography; he brought along his film camera, and everywhere we went, it was there. If you had to apply a style to his photography now, as so many try to box everything into specific categories, he was had a photo-jounalistic style. Standing on the sidelines or down a side street capturing life as it happened; trying not to be part of the interaction.

You never really knew when you were being captured, but you’d show up later in his developed prints. This image, my absolute favorite image from my childhood, set me on the path to being a photographer as well.