Step Into the Light
Experimentation and Exploration of Things Illuminated.
All Photos Copyright © Kathryn Friedman
All Rights Reserved
Ask me anything
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This poem is by my incredibly talented and creative brother, Justin Friedman
In Bruce’s best moments we become him; his words give voice to our depths. The man himself is familiar with this blurring of lines. Roy Orbison’s singing for the lonely, hey that’s me and I want you only. This poem is my version of that line: A compilation of the moments when I thought, hey that’s me. This is a true story. Only the names, locations, and symbols have been changed to mirror the Boss’s universe.
From a Dark Room
Candy speaks in ravens – dark words
Born on black and oiled wings.
Gifts of scarves, gleaming jewels -
No balm for aged and psychic wounds.
I soothe her to sleep with tales
of yesterday’s fading lovers
and think All she wants is me.
Famous last words of many a hero.
See their pictures hanging on the wall?
**
Once I slipped though the night
like some untamed gypsy angel-
Built like light, stoned on cheap rose
and the dust Wild Billy kept hidden
in his dirty coonskin cap.
I felt like a man then,
but a party in the woods
is childhood’s final bastion.
So I wrestled Crazy Janey
in the dirt near Greasy Lake.
Spirits form where flesh
joins flesh. Making love
Janey said, but we all knew
she was loose with more than words.
***
A boardwalk honeymoon,
(You oughtta quit this scene too)
The summer full of factory girls
Eager to unsnap their jeans for me.
Only Sandy gave chase.
I told her Love me tonight,
for I may never see you again.
So green I was in seduction’s
tongue, I said: Love me tonight,
and I promise, I’ll love you forever.
That seemed to work better.
Behind the penny arcade,
In a booth of silks and sandalwood,
Madam Marie saw truth
In her cloudy crystal ball,
But it doesn’t takes a fortune teller
To see a broken promise.
***
And then I told Rosie
that she was the one.
The only lover
I’m ever gonna need.
My stone desire .
Ain’t no liar.
Etc.
Is it all so funny,
looking back now?
True heroes don’t put
the liberated back into shackles.
But I’d have freed Rosie
Only to make her my lover,
my comfort, my muse.
See, I was no hero, true nor false
Just a painter of scenes never seen.
A pretty little place in Southern California
down San Diego way. Never made it west,
or even out of Jersey’s foetid swamps.
More innocent than wild still.
Born to dream,
Not yet to run.
***
With Mary I could tell it straight.
Well I’m no hero and
you ain’t a beauty but hey,
you’re alright.
Good enough for a toss
In my car’s cramped backseat.
Mary loved to cruise the strip,
and knew the price of a ride.
I’d fill her up with speed and wonder,
then drop her home, hungry
for unspoken words.
Our faith was not in one another -
Supplicants to night’s eternal mystery:
A last defense against the killer
In daytime’s growing sun.
Trade in wings for wheels
and find heaven on the road.
Leave ghosts to the sky.
***
Every line I used on Wendy
I meant, because I loved her
with a madness that robbed
me of my wits for games.
I wanna die with you Wendy
on the street tonight and drove
like that’s exactly what I
intended to do. Suicide’s
A common dream for youth
and broken heroes. Death,
the final hiding place
for the answers to life’s
big questions. I was young yet.
I had Wendy to help me puzzle
it out. I want to know if love
is wild. I want to know if love
is real. Together we wanted
to find a place in the sun
where the heat of desire burns
the questions away, leaving
poets nothing to write.
***
Candy’s still awake when I finish.
She says Baby if you want to be wild
you got a lot to learn and feigns sleep,
to visit the shining hidden worlds
that exist only in the darkness of eyes
shut to familiar reality. All she wants is me
I tell myself and the silence seems to reply
You got a lot to learn. I wonder about the lesson,
If I’ll ever learn it here, lurking in the shadows
of Candy’s room, mistaking servitude
for heroism and calling sadness, beauty.
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Quiksilver Pro surf competition Long Beach, NY 2011
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Jazz fest feels like this.
and this.
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I just got back from Jazz Fest in New Orleans. This year was my sixth time going to Jazz Fest. I’ve sort of lost interest in shooting at the fairgrounds, but lug my camera around with me all day anyway to catch that last half hour of insane, glowy light after the music stops and the race track empties out.
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Updates from New Orleans soon…but first…a very exciting first for me! A photo that I took during the production of the ExOfficio Spring/Summer 2012 catalog in Valle de Corcora, Colombia appears as a full-page spread in the new catalog. Check it out!
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Off to New Orleans!!
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Wishing I was back at this place today.
Hana, HI 2011
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I’ve been shooting some of Betabrand’s fancy new shorts for men.
Dear Betabrand- can you please make fun shorts for women?
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I took this photo of Levon Helm when I saw him at Jazz Fest in New Orleans in 2010. He was one of my all time favorite musicians and performers. RIP Levon.
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