2nd Steve

I noticed Steve as I entered the Barnes & Noble in Sarasota.  He was sitting against the outside wall on top of a small bundle of his belongings. 

I introduced myself by telling him that I thought he had an interesting face and asked permission to photograph him for the 100 Strangers Project.  Before he agreed, Steve told me he was low on smokes and needed a dollar to buy a second pack.  He assured me that smoking was his only vice by saying “I don’t do drugs or alcohol and I have been smoking for 40 years, ever since I was 13 years-old.”

I call this portrait 2^nd Steve because I photographed another Steve just a couple of weeks ago.  This Steve is # 11, in my ‘100 Strangers Project’.  Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group

https://www.flickr.com/groups/342582@N20/

Steve has lost touch with his mother and brother ever since he has been out on the streets, which he attributes to ‘mental issues’ caused by being abused as a child.  He was raised in Englewod, Florida a short distance from the Sarasota streets he now calls home.  Steve made a point of telling me that his great-grandmother was Italian and that he was 1/16 American Indian.

Check out my Flickr page at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/vincentveneruso/