When you go back in time.

- When you dig deep.

- Into your work, you're often surprised.

What was once an exposure?

258 is now -a historical moment of a person, place, -or thing.

But is that enough?

Doesn't what's in the frame - need to be a good photograph.

- As well?

- Time is marked.

- And silver time is captured.

Time is on your side.

Or is it?

Time does not heal -all wounds.

- Time captured in light.

- Keeps those wounds fresh.

Like the day you made them.

Like the day you got them.

The liger is a small camera.

- It fits in my hand, snugly.

- In my hand.

- And the M2 was the camera.

- That I chose to use in 1974.

- It was my first camera, and.

- It's still my working tool.

- I do have other cameras.

- In the theater.

-I work with an M3 -and a 50 millimeter lens, - but on the street.

- I often work with the M2 and sometimes -now I use an M6.

- But the camera.

- Was the perfect tool for me because it was small.

-It was an intimate, -it was quiet, - and people.

- Didn't really notice it - because it doesn't have.

- A big lens or a large presence.

- So it was easy for me.

- To have it with me all the time.

-And as a young photographer, -Henk Wessel, - who is my teacher.

- At the Art Institute, he always had his camera on.

- And he told us back in.

- The day that if you're not - going to have your camera.

- With you, - you're.

- Going to miss something.

So I took that to heart, - and I always travel.

- With my camera.

- I might have it on all day.

- And not lift it - up to my eye, but.

- It's part of my personality.

It's part of who I am.

It's an accessory.

Like a belt -or pair of shoes.

- I'm really influenced.

- By illustration, black and white drawings, - and so the black and white.

- Camera of the black - and white film.

- Seemed to make sense to me.

And as I went on, - the color was not that.

- Interesting to me.

-When I go out to photograph, -I don't really go out -to photograph.

-I go out to do my day, -and if I'm going someplace, I have my camera with me and I'm not interested - in setting things up.

- Or making people - go certain places.

- Or do certain things or moving objects around.

- I'm not really interested.

- In that.

- I'm more interested.

- In discovering - having the unfolding happen.

- Before me as I walk through - whatever activity.

- I might be doing, whatever my day brings.

Palk Strait, which is where -I was ended up living after -moving around for a while, - was in its heyday.

- And and gay pride - was starting to become.

- A word, a term, -a feeling, -a place of being that, we hadn't experienced -before.

-Coincidentally, -when I was photographing, once in Dolores Park, - I ran out of film.

- And I went to a camera shop, - and that's where I met.

- Harvey Milk.

- And he pretty much.

- Changed my life when he was shot dead -by by Dan White, -along with George Mosconi in, the November of 1978, - having moved to San.

- Francisco in 73 and 78, - I just felt like I didn't.

- Want to live there anymore, because it seems like - it seemed like -every time you turned.

- Around, Joan Baez - was singing in the streets.

- For something.

Harvey Milk, Jonestown.

I just I had to leave.

- I had to go back.

- East in the fall of 78, -I took a train to Peekskill, -and I photographed - the Indian Point.

- Nuclear power plant.

- And then when the accident.

- In Harrisburg happened on March 28th, 1979, - I decided that that I hadn't.

- Gotten on that train, - just as a coincidence.

- That I had gotten on the train for a reason.

And I became very involved - with the.

- Anti-nuclear movement, - Aids activism.

- By being part of Act UP's, -actions that they had, -and also at the same time, the women's movement - where it was being.

- Challenged again, - abortion.

- Was being challenged again.

- So we had two things.

- Happening at the same time.

Women and men, - both vulnerable.

- To health care.

- And the camera was just.

- A way of putting myself - in a situation.

- Where I could photograph - and maybe be useful, maybe.

- Take a picture that could - that could, change the way.

- We looked at the world.

-Most of the time, -the pictures just sat in a - folder late to be discovered.

- Later on in my darkroom.

-One day in the new century, -I got a DM from a friend on Instagram.

- I had posted the photograph.

- And the friend wrote, do you know who that man is?

Holding up the black coffin - in the center.

- Of your photograph?

- I did not.

-I texted back, though.

- I felt like I did.

- He had been.

- In silver all this time.

- He's a sort of.

- Saint, my friend, explained.

-The Haitian born performer, -director, poet, Aids activist.

He danced with Martha -Graham.

Great.

I wrote back.

I'd like to send him -a print.

The photograph.

You can't, he replied.

A photo -died of Aids in 1994.

He was 36 years old.

-I started to go to, -up to the Far Rockaways and teaching a workshop, - and I noticed that.

- Most of the folks - liked.

- Having their picture taken, - but it didn't necessarily.

- Warm up to the cameras.

- So I started.

- To bring in pictures, - and I also started.

- To do visual art with them.

- So we had this hobnob.

- Table of pictures that I had made, pictures and contact - sheets, edits.

- That they had made, - and lots of visual.

- Arts material.

- And then one day in Coney.

- Island, where I worked for -almost 15 years, -a woman named Jane Smith - took a colored pencil.

- Or a magic marker.

I'm not sure what it was, - and started -coloring on.

- One of the photographs - that I had brought.

- In that day.

- And that's how the hand.

- Colored photograph series started.

- And when I was in West.

- Virginia, - I was thinking about.

- What I might want to do.

- And so I joined.

- This organization.

And through this -organization, - I met.

- A tremendous amount of women - and started to photograph.

- Older women and men, - but mostly women, because.

- Women live longer than men.

- So I photographed Lottie.

- Christian - looking out the window.

- In her home place.

- I photographed Georgie Herd.

- Milking cows.

- And that day.

- I photographed George.

- You heard -she got dressed up to go out.

- And milk cows in the barn, - and she had these little.

- White goggle boots on.

- In 1984, very.

- Early in my tenure, at 122, - I photographed a performance.

- Called 24 hours.

And it was Yoshiko -Tuma and the school of Hard -Knocks, and it literally -was 24 hours.

- She started at 8 p.m., and.

- She ended 24 hours later, - and I was able to photograph.

- The performances - and go upstairs, process.

- The film and make contact sheets, bring them down - and attach them.

- To the columns at 122, which was kind of an amazing - experience.

- When you think about that, how much time lapsed - and how people were so tired.

- At the end of 24 hours, - but still.

- Still really energized.

- And in the course of my time.

- There, I photographed, -you know, my friends Tim, -Tim Miller, John Burnett, -Bethel Peters, many, -many people.

But then I made new friends.

- I made new friends because.

- They were in the community and they were performing.

So I was very fortunate - enough.

- To be able to finally meet and photograph -Meredith Monk, - who I had heard.

- Sing at Saint Mark's Church -way back in 1978, -whose performance completely - changed the way I thought.

- About the live arts.

- I was the photographer.

- Who photographed the NEA four.

Karen Finley, - Holly Hughes, Tim.

- Miller, and John Fleck.

- The NEA four were.

- Just a few of the artists - whose work.

- Was being challenged during the culture wars.

There are many, many others.

- There was a lot of artists.

- Who were on the peripheral of Pierce 122 - that didn't necessarily.

- Perform there, but still were my friends - with this particular group.

- Of artists.

This particular case - went all the way.

- To the Supreme Court, and we lost eight one.

- When I met Brad Kessler.

- And we started living - together in my apartment.

- On ninth Street, -348 East ninth Street, -he was really unhappy.

- He didn't really.

- Like the city.

- He was more of a.

- A country guy.

- And so we started to think.

- About where we could go.

That would enable us to still -maybe be in New York so we could work and make money, but be far enough away - so that we could do.

- Something else.

- The guidelines for us.

- Finding a place - was that it had to be a dead.

- End road, cat safe road, - and Brad needed to be able.

- To go outside naked.

- Those are the -those were.

- The searching features - that we were searching for.

- We were looking for owls -and, the goats.

- The goats didn't.

- Really show up until 2005.

- And Brad wrote.

- A book called Goat Song.

- And I remember when the book.

- Came out in 2010 or 11, -people said, well, -are you going to get rid of the goats now?

Because you know, -you've created this project and you've got a book now?

-And I kept thinking, -why would we do that?

We love the goats.

- I met a -woman at a place called.

- Chestnut Ridge in Cambridge, - and started a relationship.

- With Amy Lebaron - as her student.

- On the back of a horse.

And then eventually - she brought me.

- To the racetrack, - where I started.

- To photograph the backside of the Saratoga Race Track.

I started as a hot walker - so I could learn about.

- The labor of the racetrack - and have a sense.

- Of what happened - on the backside.

- Of the racetrack.

It's not very often - in your life.

- That you get to meet - somebody as fabulous.

- As Maurice Sendak, - and it's not very often.

- In your life - that you actually get.

- To create something with him and his - caretaker best friend kind.

- Of daughter, Lynn Carbonara.

- And that's exactly.

- What we did in 2009, - was to come together.

- And figure out how Maurice - would be able to mentor.

- Young illustrators in the same way -he was mentored by Crockett -Johnson and Ruth Krauss - in their little house.

- In Connecticut.

- And so we set upon ourselves.

- To do that.

-And in 2010, -in the fall of 2010, - the Sendak Fellowship.

- Started with four artists.

- I started.

- To write these stories, - you know, from my joyous.

- Youth in Lake Ronkonkoma.

- And then I was this project.

- Of the the photographic archive, continued.

- I decided that.

- It would be interesting to - maybe put the stories.

- With the photographs.

- My camera's a black box.

- As a photographer, right.

Performance space 122.

-In New York City, -I worked in a black box.

- A black box is a place.

- That holds secrets.

-The back, -the black box in an airplane - is what they look at or.

- Listen to or try and find.

When a plane goes down.

- A portfolio.

- Box is a black box.

- So my darkroom is a black.

- Box with an amber light.

So it made sense to me - that that's what.

- It should be called.

-The black box, -the revealer of the truths.

Vermont public, - partnering.

- With local filmmakers - to bring you.

- Stories made here.

-For more, -visit Vermont public.org.