It’s Times Like These You Learn to Live Again

Reliving my rock & roll youth through the lens

Banning Poore, Vocals, Sarchotic / photo by author

There was a time in my life when I believed I might be a rock star some day. I mean, there wasn’t an actual chance I’d be a rock star, but I lived the life for a few years. I sang in rock bands, moved across the country in search of a musical connection, and dabbled in rock & roll, sex, and drugs, in that order.

The author living his rock & roll dream in 1990 / photo by Meg Wilson

Alas, my rock & roll dreams were set aside in favor of family, a hirable haircut, and a steady income. Now, many, many (too many) years later, I’ve found myself in the middle of a relationship status change, with 20 years of experience behind the camera — primarily, landscape and architectural photography.

I moved across the country to a new town, and leaned on photography for companionship. I never thought about it that way until I wrote those words just now. When my life was mired in shit, the only place I could find beauty was through the viewfinder.

I’d been walking around with my Nikon taking photos of the local sights for weeks. I just used my two most comfortable cameras, a Nikon D7200 and my old starter camera, a D3200, on which I…