Marcus, Near Home

The area around Universal Studios has pockets of quiet that visitors never see, neighborhoods with real sidewalks and parks where people actually live. Marcus knew those streets, and this was his territory, a local park near his apartment where the basketball court sat open and the pond behind the fence rail had none of the polish of the tourist corridors nearby.

The blue polo against the trees gave us the portraits, easy and unhurried in a way the downtown shoot could not quite be. Then the beanie went on and the plaid came out and the court became a stage again. Marcus did not need direction on the movement shots. He already knew what his body could do and the camera just had to be ready for it. The yellow soles of his Jordans flashing mid-air over the court might be the clearest image of who he was in that season.

This was still early in my time in Orlando and Marcus was still showing me the city one neighborhood at a time. I did not know then how much of my early work here would have his energy running through it.