A recent issue of STOP SMILING magazine featured a tribute to poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti through an interview with photographer and filmmaker Chris Felver.

Lawrence Ferlinghetti – Fuck Art, Let’s Dance / Photo © Chris Felver

Felver recently directed and is currently screening a documentary film about his long-time friend and collaborator called Ferlinghetti.

From the interview:

“Some people never want to meet their heroes,” says Felver. “As a photographer and documentary filmmaker, you have to. That has been my mission from the beginning: to find a thread to connect all these people I admire by photographing them or making films about them, their lives and their work. The camera became my welcome wagon.”

The camera is his welcome wagon into the lives of his heroes — or anyone else he photographs, for that matter.

I feel the same way much of the time. Meeting, photographing, and getting to know people — even if just for the few minutes we spend together as photographer and subject — is one of my absolute favorite parts of what I do.