Days with Darrell

In the spring of 2011 I was assigned to photograph the comedian Darrell Hammond for The Upper East Side magazine, for he was starring in the one man show Tru, based on the life of Truman Capote. Not growing up in the U.S. I wasn’t aware of Darrell’s career, for starters he is the longest living cast member of Saturday Night Live. All I saw was a man who was remote in his own thoughts. A state I find myself in often. Therefore, I treated him as I would have wanted to be treated: to be left alone. Darrell didn’t feel comfortable letting me go empty handed. He invited me to photograph his stand up performance at Caroline’s comedy club the following night. Seeing Darrell on stage marked a turning point. I observed Darrell quickly unraveling and morphing from one person to another. In a sense it felt as though Darrell was “channelling” characters who “live” inside him. As he stepped off the stage he asked me if I got what I needed. I answered “No” and took him aside to ask him if I could photograph him again for myself in the future. That night was the beginning of a year long collaborative relationship that surprisingly evolved into a unique friendship between Darrell and myself. This work is a collection of stills, video and audio recordings, taken in New York, Los Angeles and New Orleans.