And there is all the rest. These tiny details, this bottle, this mask, this Power Ranger Robots, this walls, this thing… A little like me, I cannot fit them in any boxes. I am an awkward bit and, amongst those pictures, are some the shots I am most proud of. I took something weird and made it shine, made it look like I saw it for what it was, like it belonged. Like a treasure to be remembered. Like I would like to be remembered someday.

 

And looking back at what I just wrote, when I make the awkward shine, I make myself brighter. I make myself exist. I never found my place in the world until I embraced who I was and who I did not want to be anymore.

 

So these babies have a special meaning to me. They looked misplaced, like they had no directions, or they thought they did. It took a few kind hands, a few smart eyes and they started glowing and spreading a light. The light of who they were. Just like me. They went from lost to being a beacon in the dark.

 

Why am I crying as I am writing this? It is because this monograph is my beacon in the dark and I honestly don’t know if I’d still be there if fate had not intervened to make this awkward weird man sit at his desk and tell his story through words and pictures.