Jed and I met on Earth Day, April 22nd of 2014. I'd been working for a short time at a local nursery when Jed walked in and asked for some tomato plants for a garden he was planting. A few weeks earlier I'd met someone at a party who looked a lot like him so when I saw him I assumed it was the same guy. "Aren't you the guy I met at so and so's party a few weeks ago?" Worst pickup line ever except that I wasn't trying to pick him up. He answered that he didn't think he was who I thought he was and we continued talking about tomatoes.
At some point in the conversation I learned that Jed was a fire dancer and I had recently photographed a fire dancer so I was interested in doing more work along those lines. We chatted for awhile and then decided to get together the next evening for dinner so that we could pursue the conversation and make some plans for a shoot. We had dinner and then headed back to my place where we spent most of the rest of the night talking and tripping. There was a moment of awkwardness when I realized that it was way late and I needed to get some sleep but really really really didn't want to just kick him out. So I asked him if he wanted to stay. He did and we've been inseperable ever since.
The decision to live together happened easily without even much of a conversation about it. I rolled out of bed the next morning, handed Jed a key to the place and took off for work. He was still there when I got home and I think it was then that I realized this was a thing. I'd been single for 17 years and didn't really think this could happen again. But it did. We had no idea what we were getting into but after almost 8 years together I think we've figured a few things out.
Jed and I are different men with different backgrounds and a significant age difference. But we like being together and keep figuring out how to live with such a profound connection at the same time as we're working on our differences. It all makes soup and the life we've created for ourselves is as beautiful and interesting as it is sometimes challenging.
Jed had done some figure modeling before I met him and so he took easily and instantly to the camera. Being nude was a non-issue for him and our first couple of shoots completely blew me away. His presence in front of the camera is unselfconscious and powerful and wildly unique. We've done dozens of shoots with tens of thousands of frames and have amassed a fascinating collection of imagery. He brings deep martial arts skills to the mix as well as a mastery of swords and other weapons, some of which are modified for use in his fire dancing.
We live together, we work together and we enjoy a partnership that's strong and ferocious and evolutionary in nature. Love can be expressed in so many different ways and the uniqueness of our expression individually and as a couple is often found in these images that we craft together.