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EM1T

@em.1t

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@ontheroofs
NYC 📍

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“Alexa play ⚡️Thunderstruck”

Another @jameschristiancosmetics HoeDown, another epic memory! From dancing in the sun to taking shelter under boats, it was an adventure to say the least! Thanks to my best crew for supporting as always, and to JC for hosting all us crazy cowgirls and boys! 🤠❤️

#happyfourthofjuly 🇺🇸
#longisland
#beachparty
#djlife
#thunderstorm

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In conversation with friends lately and in the light of changes in the world, there seems to be a sentiment of how we didn’t know how good we had it creating in years past. The feeling seemed to be mutual across the board, if we knew then what we know now, we’d have taken more chances, we’d have made more, we’d have done differently with the material we had. I suppose that’s life, and we must live it forward, but it dawned on me that we will probably always feel that way; and that we will always be living in the best moment to take chances creatively.

I don’t look back with any regret, and as little risk aversion I’ve had at times, I think I’d have even less. I think I’d lean on my truth, throw myself on the arms of love and see where they carry me even more. The deeper you get in, you see how multidimensional risk is because you are multidimensional yourself. There are many ways of moving into and through fear, most of it not even physical but psychological.

There’s never going to be a “better” time, and past and future cloud us from seeing the divine spark of the moment. There will always be material, there will always be new parts of ourselves to confront and the courage will take new shapes and forms. The risks of yesterday are not those of today, and we have to use a listening ear to hear out which ones are asking to be taken and which ones aren’t. If we do it from the right place, even the hard days become good memories. In the end there are no bad trips.

Pandemic Photos and video, 2020.
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#driftershoots

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Above The City that never sleeps.
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#driftershoots #newyork #nyc #reels #photography #nike

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A world inside our world.

#cinematic #reels #nyc #newyork #urbanexploration #driftershoots

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The best camera is the one you have with you in any given moment. #shotoniphone #driftershoots

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A man is on a smoke break at work, we are watching him, he is watching the time. After all, five o’ clock can’t come soon enough. He will finish his cigarette and turn around and go inside, we will catch the door, wait ten seconds and go inside as well. As he’s going home, we will be going to work.

It’s rush hour in New York and that is perfect, we become nothing, specks in the sea of chaos, playing our part in the universal dance. Nobody sees us, because nobody looks up, everybody has somewhere to be, and I suppose we’re no different.

More than any other shot, I’ve been asked what I was thinking in the moment of taking this self-portrait and the answer is absolutely nothing. It was pure presence. The wind was picking up and a storm was coming, sirens and horns blended into the cacophony on the streets below, but inside, there was the same silence that drew me to the work five years prior.

Two months later, we’d do it all again, this time, arriving as an enormous storm passed, a double rainbow sprawling across the sky as we stepped onto the roof. We didn’t waste time, everybody climbed in succession and I shot and filmed. We were, once again, specks in the sea of existence, playing our small part in that orchestrated dance we know locally as New York City, but beyond, the world.

New York Times Tower // 2023.

#driftershoots #dji #newyork #nyc

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Lately I’ve been thinking about how achingly beautiful but at times lonely and difficult the work of actual embodiment is. The process of becoming a container for our highest selves requires a commitment to transparency, time and consistency that is daunting. Moreover, although we will have help, nobody can do it for us. It is our walk in the dark alone at the end of the day. First and foremost, it is a commitment to ourselves that we will not turn away from anything inside us, and secondly that we will actually carve out the time and space to do the work needed to change. It involves radical compassion with ourselves, and a closer look at how our shame reflects our pride, we come to realize the best thing about life is that we aren’t too good for any part of the journey or any of the work it entails.

Like most men with Black fathers of a certain generation, I was raised on a version of masculinity that never taught me this work was important, and moreover never provided an example for what it should look like. I was taught to take up space, to insert myself even if wrong, to go tenaciously for what I want but never to take a closer look at if the reason I wanted those things so badly was because I didn’t know how to love myself. It taught me conquest as a language and called it ambition, when the thing that needed conquering was myself.

The work for this involves expansion, and growth by turning in, not out. In time, I’ve learned that all my father was showing me was how afraid he actually was, just like his father before him, because the true work of embodiment will erase whatever idea of yourself you think you have. Because embodiment isn’t an idea at all–it just is, and it doesn’t need to be seen or perceived as anything. It’s the quiet strength that comes with the humility of showing up a million times to infinity for the sake of love and nothing else.

I’m still stumbling through the dark some days, but the steps are getting softer, directed by the light inside. I can’t turn back time, but I can order the steps ahead to be rooted in transparency, grace and patience, and I plan to do just that.

#driftershoots #nyc

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As you move up the rough side of the mountain, there will be pitfalls at every turn. If you choose to move through your own darkness, there will be light. Do not betray yourself, never, never, never betray yourself. It is true, the only way out is through. You do not need to be good, only honest. If you can find it in yourself to confront the truth again and again, then you will naturally do your work in the world. The work you will create will come out of you, so heed the greater work of life–which is the observation and confrontation of yourself, and naturally you will create greater and greater things.

You may think you are facing an enemy, it is an illusion, you are facing yourself, even when confronting another. It is all showing you yourself, so have the courage to not look away. Define your truth and follow it with a fire undeterred, and even that which will try to extinguish that flame will only kindle it further if you allow it to burn in you what isn’t truly you. Ego burns, but the soul never does. Open your heart to the journey, you are not above what is asked of you, you are not above the dirt under your fingernails as you crawl and dig your way through the gravel of life.

In the end, words fall short and the power is all in the being. Even these words can only point to the reality in us all that lies beyond them. Take the trip, draw blood, have the courage to admit your desire and let it go in the same breath. You will see, down to the second, that it’s all light and dark all the time. You will feel it in your body, you will leave the limits of your mind behind and settle into the everythingness behind it. If you are still here, then there is still work, and though bruised and bloodied, you will crest that ragged mountain and you will sit silently face to face with God. And suddenly, as though a secret long forgotten caught you from behind, it will all appear as the deepest form of grace.
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#driftershoots #nyc

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Have been thinking lately that no matter how serious or heavy life gets, to move through it consciously is always to move through it with a certain amount of lightness and play. The moment it all gets so serious, I know I’ve lost myself in the mix again and have to come back to a place of quieting down. I can still push the boulder (no matter how heavy) up the hill and do all that is required of me in perfect balance. Somewhere right in the middle of it all, everything in my life is nourished, and that’s how I know that even the weight I feel pushing against me is causing the flowers to bloom within. The two aren’t separate.

It only gets heavy when I lose myself in it all, when I get caught up in where I’m going or what I’m going to be somewhere down the line, when the answer is I’ll be just as I ever was.

This work has shown me time and time again that to be too close to it, to have your identity wrapped up in it, is to destroy and be destroyed by the very tools that are seeking to liberate you. You become no different than the systems you may seek to dismantle, you seek a certain level of identification, power, respect and call it freedom. It is not. It is the same trap in a different disguise. To step out of the box altogether is to give up past and future for whatever the work demands today and then plant your sword in the sand before doing it all again tomorrow.

The best you can do for this work (and any kind) as far as I’m concerned is avail yourself. Give up your presuppositions of what you think you know and accept that it’s always going to be fresh and new if you’re growing. Take it with the times, see how the levels change and change with them while still honoring your truth, do it with an open heart and let be whatever comes.
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#driftershoots #chicago

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For @em.1t

DM to book LA

#tattoo #nyctattoo #abstracttattoo #losangelestattoo #gothictattoo #kneetattoo #nytattoo #filigree #baroque #rococo #eurotattoo #latattoo

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If you look closely here you can spot both @tomdurante & @em.1t on left side of the roof. 🥂🥷

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Big Eclipse Energy 🌒🤍
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#eclipse #solareclipse #eclipse2024 #love #nasa

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