2005 MLK The Time Has Come Today .  The Time Has Come Today Project   .   Home
2005 MLK Leather Weekend . WDC
'The Time Has Come Today' Documentary Project in support of same-sex marriages
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The first photograph, on the left, features Rick and Tony who I'd happen upon while walking north on 14th Street from Thomas Circle.  They were heading south to the Washington Plaza Hotel which is where the annual Leather Weekend event is held.  Though folks of various ethnicities always approach me in the street regarding all kinds of matters partly due now to the fact that I usually have a camera but such as always been the case even before the camera the fact that most folks perseave black men as 'suspects' poses a very conflicting problem for me, as a 51 year old gay black man and freelance documentary photographer.

And, yet, it is not uncommon for whites or Japanese to photograph with a similar interest and style as I.  I need reiterate, and as evidence my photograpahy as well as the manner by which I have always lived my life I could care less about another's race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, polictical or religious persuasion.  However ... as a black man ... the color of skin is the basis by which all others react to me.  Which, historically, has always been a form of 'negative reinforcement,

It was MLK birthday and I had just completed a 2005 MLK Photogragraphs Never Before Seen Project and was in the process of gearing up for the J20.  However, and as an uncompromising supporter of 'same-sex' marriages I wanted to get a few 'candid but consentual' shots of gay and/or lesbian couples in connection with the Leather Weekend. 
Under Construction
6 February 2005
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