It's around midnight in Chinatown, where we're filming this week, and the normal bustle of daytime has given way to late night quietness. As I step down from the camera truck a tall figure approaches me in the darkness, one of the security team watching the trucks. "Greetings" I say, and he responds in kind."I'm Robert." We shake hands. "I'm Tariq...a brother tells me that you are a renowned photographer." He places emphasis on the last two words. "I do my best." I say. "I wanted to meet you and say hello." he says. "Are you an artist?" I ask. 'I'm doing security, watching these trucks. Just grateful to be working and doing my job." "Do you have a passion outside of your job?" "Well, I really want to work with at-risk youth." he says. Over the course of the next few nights we talk about this more, among other things. "I want to share my experience," he says "To let them know they don't have to go down the bad road. That manhood is about taking care of your family and your community, not shooting things up and hurting other people." He speaks proudly of his son, Hassan, age twenty-one, who is working as part of the security team as well. I tell Tariq how I sometimes do school visits and workshops with students, and ask if he would like to join me on this. "Any time, any place, I'm there." he avers. We shake hands with eye contact as I head out. "To be continued..." I say.
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