Goodbye to the Flowers

Ongoing Series | 2022

In my most solemn and lonely moments, it is often fellow workers who remind me that every person is crucially important. As a member of the IWW's Freelance Journalists Union, it is my duty and privilege to share that truth through the stories of laborers.

Goodbye to the Flowers is an ongoing collection of photographs that seek to put the idea of working in a slightly different perspective. These images aim to have the viewer pause and be still with fellow workers for a few moments at a time.

I personally know some of the individuals in these photos, whether it be through my own work, my apartment complex, my neighborhood, my friends, or some other connection. But most of the faces seen here are of strangers passing by in a split second. They are the people I see on the streets and subway that make me wish I had enough time to stop and ask for their life stories. In each one, I see the face of someone I know. That is because these are the faces of America’s most real people; mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, veterans, victims, and someone’s lovers, all trying their best to make a go of things in this unflinching world.

I hope that through this project, the individuals depicted will be seen as more than just workers, and perhaps provide a sense of hope to both the American workforce on a broad scale and whatever circumstances each individual worker may be going through at any moment.

The title of this series is taken from the lyric of a John Hartford song.