Back in March of this year, my friend @f1b91...74c22 - a photographer I met on Nostr in the Bitcoin community, though I think he was initially acquainted with me through my photography publication, @63d59...70f6f — reached out asking if I wanted to be his production assistant for a shoot with David Byrne for his new album, “Who is the Sky?”.

Ahmed and David.

I wasn’t too familiar with David before Ahmed asked, but I knew him from the Talking Heads, so obviously I said yes. Then came the logistics of actually making it happen - scheduling everything around and figuring out if I could pull off the trip from South Carolina all the way up to Manhattan.

The Journey North

The drive involved coordinating between Airbnbs and making strategic stops along the way. I stayed at my dad’s house for a few days in Charlotte, which I tend to do whenever I travel north. It’s always a good stop to see my dad since I don’t get to see him very often. From there, I scheduled a couple Airbnbs in Jersey City, where I was able to see my friend Raf - always nice to catch up with him and drop off some rolls of film (watch our interview together here).** **The next day I got another Airbnb in a different city, then drove the following morning to a parking garage in Manhattan that was a block or two from Ahmed’s studio.

Sunday Afternoon Studios

The studio is called Sunday Afternoon Studios, and of course I was the first one there - I’m always early to things. I find it better to be early than late, and it’s never a problem for me because I usually just end up walking around, taking pictures, and being able to relax without worrying about rushing to get somewhere.

When I told my dad about how this shoot was going to happen, he said, “Make sure to get a picture of him on his bike” - apparently David rides his bike around the city quite often. I kept that in mind, and when David came in, sure enough, he came up the elevator with his bike. I thought of my dad and took a quick picture and sent it to him. He appreciated that, so that was cool.

Davids bike.

The Shoot

The shoot took a few hours, starting at 10 AM and wrapping up around 4:30 PM with cleanup. It was a gread day - I had a lot of fun and was able to learn more on lighting methods and setting up things I’d never worked with before in a professional environment. But I was also doing some documentary work with my Leica M262, so that’s what these photos were taken with.

David’s outfit, by the way, was extremely heavy - must’ve been at least 50 pounds or something like that. When I had to put it back in the box to ship it back to wherever it came from, I really noticed how heavy this thing actually was. It was made out of plastic tubing and zip ties and bungee cords and stuff. Actually really cool design work.

Ahmed and his newborn, Harmony.

Video link

I had a great time. Big thanks to Ahmed and crew for this opportunity to help out, meet David, and take some pictures. Really great experience. I feel very grateful for everything.

Thanks for reading.