“The Day Shall Declare It" Downtown LA. 2015. Polaroid 2034. (by dtwoods)
Tag: annie saunders
“The Day Shall Declare It” Downtown LA. 2015. Polaroid 2032.
“It’s a strange atmosphere. You come into contact with at least 35 an hour. You can’t exchange any ideas with them. They don’t know you, they never will. You’re kind of detached. You feel like they put a coin in the machine and they’ve got you. You’re there to perform your service and go. They are paying for something else. They are paying to act out a fantasy or they are paying for companionship or they are paying to be seen… Or they are paying for somebody to listen to them. They are paying for a lot of things.”
“The Day Shall Declare It” Downtown LA. 2015. Polaroid 2033.
“It’s a process of numbing yourself. In the beginning I found it very exciting. But then in order to continue I had to turn myself off. I had to disassociate who I was from what I was doing. And then after a while I found that I couldn’t turn myself back on.”
“Aw, you know how it is. Other guys, they eat, they drink, they sleep with their women, the sun keeps rising and Saturday night they get paid. Ok, ok, sooner or later they kick off, they got kids to take their place. Eat, drink, sleep with their women, get paid Saturday night. But me, my God, Jane, I want something more than just that.”
“The Day Shall Declare It”
“I feel like I can’t breathe. It keeps me awake. (pause) People will say you’re not like the other boys. It goes on night after night. I don’t sleep. I just lie there with that feeling inside me like a chest full of feathers. Take your place in the world. I need something that’ll help, that’ll get me some sleep. Grow up. Do you understand? I can’t go on like this, just lying there night after night looking up at the ceiling and expecting.”
“The Day Shall Declare It”
“Yes, I remember you plainly, I met you in the park in back of the public library or was it the men’s room at the Greyhound Depot. I met so many they sometimes get mixed up however you stand out plainly. You asked for the time, or a light, and we got to talking and first thing I knew we was in your apartment, drinking…I seem to have gone through a change which I cannot account for except that I am very disgusted with all of the world. I guess I stopped caring about what happened to me. That is to say, I have lost my self respect. I have had experiences which only meant money to me and a place to shack up for the night and liquor and food. I never thought it could mean very much to them. I have meant something very important to hundreds of people whose faces and names have slipped clean out of my mind. I feel as if I have run up a debt of some kind – not money, but feelings.”
“The Day Shall Declare It" (by dtwoods)
“You remember. The Paradise dance hall down on the waterfront? I had such delusions about you. You talked so swell. You made such a lovely impression on me that night we first met. And what was it you whispered in my ear?"
“The Day Shall Declare It" Downtown LA. 2015. Polaroid 2031.
“Really makes you wonder, what price do they put on me. The only time you stop is when the line stops. It just goes and goes and goes. I bet there’s men who have died, lived and died and never seen the end of that line. And they never will, because it’s endless. It’s like a serpent; it’s just all body, no tail.”
“It’s a strange atmosphere. You come into contact with at least 35 an hour. You can’t exchange any ideas with them. They don’t know you, they never will. You’re kind of detached. You feel like they put a coin in the machine and they’ve got you. You’re there to perform your service and go. They are paying for something else. They are paying to act out a fantasy or they are paying for companionship or they are paying to be seen… Or they are paying for somebody to listen to them. They are paying for a lot of things.”
Photo by: Derek Woods
Derek Woods Photography 