 Once upon a time, a long time ago, actually in Chicago, I was going to Columbia College to study photography. And the first question that the teacher asked was, who is your inspiration? Nobody expected that question, and he gave us books and things to look at the library. And I discovered this photographer, Diane Arbus. I really got into her photographs. It really appealed to me. She captured people who lived on the edge of society, went into their world, and somehow just captured who they were. I really liked that, and I wanted to base my photography on that. Eventually, I moved to New York, not to become a photographer, to actually become an actor. Somehow, I changed course, and I went to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. And it was going well. I went to auditions and so on for theater. But after a certain point, well, let me put it this way. I was attracted also to going to New York with the bands, the club scenes, and so on, the bands playing like Ramones and Blondie at Maxis and Gbys. And well, late nights and early mornings somehow didn't mix. And I met this woman, Alexa Hunter, at one of these auditions. And we had all of this in common. And she took me to this place called Club 57, which was around the corner from where I lived. And it was very special. I mean, it was like really, really special people that were attracted to this place. Because at the time in New York, special people went there to do their dream, I feel. Because you didn't have to work all the time to pay your rent. You could focus your time on your art, whatever it was. But it was also dangerous. I mean, on my block, there were drug dealers. And I couldn't walk past, what was it, Avenue Way. It looked like a bomb dropped on buildings. It was dangerous with gangs and junkies and so on, junkie zombies. But I enjoyed it. It was exciting. I mean, sometimes I went to sleep at night, heard gunshots, screams. But it was fun. And it was an exciting point in my life. Club 57, I found that I could do more there than the actual school by performing and so on. So I was motivated to do photography again and get back that inspiration that Diane Arbus gave to me. And so I photographed 57 people and did interviews with them as well. I mean, some well-known people like Keith Herring, who later became a famous artist. But people who should have been famous like John Sexton, Wendy Wilde, there's also Anne Magnuson, who's quite well-known. So I was doing this at this club. I mean, every night there'd be something like an art show. Keith did his first art show. He'd paint it on the walls. And the next day it was down. He painted over the walls. And then there were well-known bands that played there. And other people doing some very special things, filmmakers, underground filmmakers, Amos Poe, and many, many, many more. And while I was doing this book, I met some interesting people along the way. I met Jean-Michel Basquier when he was doing graffiti on the wall. And I used to take him out for breakfast once a week. It became a ritual. And then when I was almost done with the book, a friend of mine worked at the Andy Warhol factory, actually, which wasn't far from where I lived. It was a little past 14th Street. I lived on 10th Street. And he arranged an interview with him. So I brought my portfolio for him to look at. And I went up there. It was just one big white room. And he was sitting in a corner reading the New York Post, which is kind of like a tabloid newspaper. And I went up to him, introduced myself, sat down, showed him my work. And he was looking at it. He didn't talk much. And he just said, do more work. That's all he said, basically. But I would see him at parties. And he would ask how it was going. Eventually I had the opportunity to go to London to do some reporting for some newspapers about culture in London and Paris. So it was a great opportunity. So I let some people live in my place. And I created an example of the book to bring to publishers where I actually made prints of the photographs. I transcribed all the interviews. And I left it with a friend of mine to make a long story short. I came back from London and found out his flat was flooded and he lost everything. Or it was destroyed of what I gave him, which I wasn't too happy about. I was super angry. And I just gave up. I completely gave up on everything. And oh yeah, by the way, in order to go to London, I had a painting by Keith Haring about this big of an angel. And I sold it. And now it's probably worth a couple million dollars. I sold it to pay my phone bill for, I don't know, $150 or something crazy like that. So live and learn. So fast forward to now, I was approached in Prague where I live by a publisher to do a book about my photographs. And I had a better idea to do a book about three cities that I had lived in, New York, Berlin, Prague, and collect 70 people approximately from the various cities to show how they influence the cities and how the cities influence them, artists, writers, photographers. And we put it together. It took four years to make. And I felt like somehow this was the book that didn't happen, but it was much better. And to top it off, there was an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York about Club 57, and I was very proud to be part of it with quite a few of my photographs. So I guess the point of the story is just to be patient and things come around in a circle, and that's that.