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You are here: Home / Personal / Bros in Portland

Bros in Portland

July 21, 2018

Black-and-white-image-garage-division-street-Portland-OregonMy brother moved to Portland over three years ago. He always had a mixed review of living in the city and once my trip was over, I understood everything. There’s something really odd about the “weirdness” of Portland. In short, we are all weird but Frank is the wrong kind of weird for Portland. There he’s actually considered a “bro”. When he told me that this happening to him, I didn’t believe him at first. Soon enough, I realized that in Portland, I’m a “bro” too. All this time, I thought he was imagining things in Portland but now I see it all so clearly.

frank-underwear-portland-oregon
On the weekdays, Frank was able to work from home. He literally rolled out of bed at 8:25am, warmed up water for tea and started writing code in his underwear. This behavior is so my brother.

Being only my second time in Portland, I didn’t know what to expect. Since I watched 7 seasons of Portlandia, I figured that people would be weird but mostly polite and that the city would be easy to navigate. That much was true.

Garage-Portland-Oregon
I recently got into the photography of Fred Herzog, a German born photographer who documented Vancouver Canada using only Kodachrome. This I saw this garage on the walk to Franks place from the airport and couldn’t resist paying homage.
Man-walking-Portland-Oregon
This is one of his neighbors, he mostly walked around the street and tinkered in his woodworking shop down below. If you zoom in, you can see the weird ass look he was giving me. Did he know I was photographing him? Or was he simply disturbed by my presence?

Since Frank moved up there, we hadn’t really spent any time together doing activities together. It’s mostly him coming down for the holidays over an already busy week. This trip was pure bullshit and nothingness. We must have had pizza six times over the course of five days and we drank a lot of beer. A lot….of beer.

Man-sleeping-train-tracks-Portland-Oregon
After dropping him off at work, I jumped on Frank’s bike for a cruise around town. I stopped while crossing the Hawthorne bridge for a look and saw this guy sleeping on a pile of dirty clothes. He had a pizza box nearby and I watched as he fumbled around for it, then eat a slice as the train passed.
People-swimming-willamette-river-Portland-Oregon
Further down the Hawthorne bridge, people were enjoying the sun on this little dock on the river. I ended up catching a dude mid cannonball.
Trash cans-Portland-Oregon
While walking around the neighborhood in SE Portland, I would find little gems like this that spoke to me visually. I love the shadow play on the rustic building. The two sets of trash cans adds to the depth.

Little-girl-playing-downtown-Portland-Oregon
This energetic little girl near Powell’s kept trying to get her Dad’s attention away from his phone. It kinda worked, she got my attention.

It was really nice to reconnect with Frank on a brotherly level that our relationship had sorely missed in the last few years. We even went to his Jiu Jitsu school twice in the five days I was there.

Frank-Meza-Portland-Oregon
“Hey Frank, look that way, the light is really nice right here. Look like you’re a deep dude. This could be your Tinder profile.”
Eastside-grappling-Portland-Oregon
Josh Botkins (Black/Blue Gi) from Eastside Grappling was great to meet. He spoke of learning concepts rather than specific moves. His guys shut down my guard game and poked some holes that I need to fix. I can see why traveling to other gyms is so beneficial to training.

Man-walking-Hawthorne-bridge-Portland-Oregon

Kids-playing-Portland-Oregon
Frank and I ran into these four boys near the waterfront who were fooling around. One of the boys was holding onto a mans bike while he rode on, the boy held on for a at least a hundred and fifty feet before he noticed. There was something so pure about the behavior of these boys that gave me that nostalgic feeling we are all chasing. It was summer and they were just being kids.
Boy-laughing-Portland-Oregon
Pure joy in watching his friend be an idiot.
Kids-playing-water-fountain-Portland-Oregon
Scattered throughout the city are water features that parents would take their kids to. It was difficult to photograph these types of activities without looking like a creep. This frame was well worth the risk.
Man-talking-phone-Portland-Oregon
We realized that we were headed into the wrong part of town when we passed this dude having a weird conversation.
Silhouette-water-fountain-Portland-Oregon
The water fountain from earlier transformed itself into a stunning backdrop for this couple later that evening. I love how the same environment can change meaning based on time of day.

On my second to last day in town, our cousin Tony happened to be around and hit up Frank by coincidence. We did the math and it was 2004 since we last saw each other. He’s a career soldier in the Army Special Forces who’s done multiple tours overseas. He’s pretty much the nicest badass in our family. I kept telling him that he was Country Mac from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Cousin-tony-Portland-Oregon
Tony is big on road trips and camping. His 4Runner is basically his home and he’s even got a rooftop tent that I’m insanely jealous of.

He ended up sticking around all night and the beer flowed like wine. (Is that the saying?) One blurry evening later, Frank was nudging me awake to leave for work.

Tony-going-down-slide-frank-Portland-Oregon
On the way home from the bar, there’s an open elementary school with a huge slide. Frank says that all this slide shows women on dates that he does cute shit and it’s his go-to move. Tony decided that he needed to send it in reverse. He ended up flipping backwards right after this photo was taken.

On a side note, that same evening, I experienced my first ever brush with overt racism. Some drunk dude in an elevator asked us if we were citizens right after he told us he was from Texas. I don’t know if he thought we were Mexicans or Arabs but it was clear from his tone that he was looking for a fight. Maybe that dude was packing heat, who knows?

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Filed Under: Personal, Travel Tagged With: Portland, portrait

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