dominic fike played a show on 4/19/19 at the hammer museum. I didn’t know who he was other than a guy brockhampton posted a youtube video of for whatever reason two weeks before. I guess brockhampton was trying to position themselves as a brand/label/agency, or trying to see what they could get away with. that’s all dead now obviously. at that show, I ran into taylor blackwell who introduced me to their friends that tagged along, this person who changed their name and is near impossible to find on social media—and avery pohl.
taylor, next month, hosted a keith haring birthday celebration where everyone made art (I painted a chicken on canvas that taylor still has to this day albeit faded). she also low-key had us do an almost kind of séance but keith didn’t reply, go figure. avery had to remind me she was there too, I mostly kept to myself back in those days. it wouldn’t be until years later on 11/16/21 that we finally saw each other again, this time for our first @home session (now archived). she was a working woman now. in her own apartment putting in the hours in la la land. you couldn’t feel anything other than pride for her—it wasn’t a surprise though, she always had it in her.
we again would take two years to see each other. 12/16/23 at noelle’s christmas party. avery came with her friend jhanelle. we caught up. she moved to a new place—I had moved to a new stage in life as a person + photographer. we planned to do an updated @home once 2024 began. This is it. 1/31/24.
we spent an hour talking our personal matters. I definitely gossiped. I don’t even remember if I did, I just know myself well enough to be sure that I did. we then went room to room, taking pictures while we transitioned from my angsty spotify daylist to avery’s select songs I would never listen to in my life—although we did play some two door cinema club which middle school me was fond of their first album (I remember waking up to get ready for school and watching their “what you know” music video playing on mtv in the morning before I’d head out). her dog kingsley, an absolute sweetheart, would follow us and watch before getting in on the action himself—as effortless a model as avery.
I love taking photos of actors. they already know how to work the camera, I hardly had to direct avery at all. she’s the one who suggested laying on the rug, pics with kingsley, and the outfits we ended up on. gotta have that creative instinct to just fuck around and see what works, and that’s another thing I love. that push and pull of making shit, the yes and the nos—the respect between peers to explore what warrants those decisions. we are in this together. always have been, and I love being able to share that experience with avery, one we all desire as artists.
