“I’m from all over, but recently it was California. I came back for an ex… love will make you do crazy things. It will. I should have never came back, but it’s all good. You live and you learn.”
Meet Carl.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Be yourself and stay focused. I get sidetracked a lot. I have a lot of things I want to do, and I don’t really focus on one thing. I mean, I take pictures, I skateboard and like I do music and I dance. I kind of don’t put enough focus on the one thing and get good at that one thing. I try to do everything at one time. It’s not good.”
“Right now I’m trying to focus on business… I’m trying to come up in the ranks so I can not have to work. That’s really it right now.”
What would you do when you achieved that? “I would definitely start doing some type of giving back in the sense where I would kind of reach younger people and help them change if they’re going through a certain path that a lot of us get caught up in out here. It might help if they had somebody to talk to on that level.”
“I’ve definitely been through some crazy stuff. When I was in California, I was homeless… I lived on skid row for a little while. I didn’t know anybody in California. I was sleeping in a substation behind bushes. I got a dog… I don’t know why homeless people get dogs. I traded my phone for a dog. I would walk him around LA, and I met this guy he had the same kind of dog and we hung out. We hung out for two weeks, and I finally told him I was homeless. He was like ‘Bro, why didn’t you tell me you were homeless? You can stay with me.’ I ended up living right off Hollywood Boulevard. You walk out and the stars are right here.”
“I’ve been through a lot of stages and it’s definitely helped make me who I am. It’s made me very well rounded. So I can pretty much talk to anybody and vibe on different people’s levels.”
It was great talking with you Carl. Thank you for being so generous with your time.
Technical Notes: I took a few shots in the direct sun, but the brim of Carl’s hat cast a harsh shadow on his face. We moved to a shadier area where I captured this more evenly lit image.
Dan Russell-Pinson 