Ophir "Booh" Bouhouche's Questionnaire

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"I'm a military kid. Third generation immigrant, my dad was in the Air Force. Never really found much of a place that really ever felt like home. I had been moving around from town to town all over the US, and never really got much of an opportunity to put down roots. Really, I could live anywhere. Nashville is just where I ended up when I was 18 and my folks said it was time to pack it up and head out."

"I don't live in a shithole or nothing. Just a place. Three roommates, so common space is tight... but I've not got much other than my tech. I have my bed, I've got my computer, some camera supplies, and a wall with some of my favorite shots I've gotten over the years... all of varying quality as my internal recording tech continued to strengthen. Some stuff in Cali, some stuff in Florida, some stuff in Texas. Like I said, I've been all over. Maybe I'll introduce you to my roommates some time.

--AUDIO ONLY--

"Freelance photography right now, mostly. Lotta musicians getting out of college who want professional headshots, lotta local bands that want music videos, weddings, gigs like that. You name a type of gathering, I've done it. I had some time as a war photographer with a US news company covering some of the conflict in Syria, let me travel a little bit more, but I don't think I'm cut out for that work long term. I don't know anyone who would be, really. But I am now, Tennessee. Housing's expensive, but that's what I get for needing people to hire me."

"Nowadays, though, I'm getting ready to work with some other newspapers, especially after all that footage I got of FantasticLand. I'm starting to make a name for myself, so I'm going to be using those contacts best I can. We'll see what other crazy shit I'll be able to get images of. See how much the highest bidder will pay for it."

"Oh, and generally, the money that I don't spend on rent and food goes to buying cigarettes and camera lenses. Look, I know I'm a camera, but I don't want everyone knowing that."

"Besides, imagine if your wedding photographer showed up with nothing but a rented suit. You'd fire him. Justifiably. I would know. Nah, I don't wanna talk about it."

--AUDIO ONLY--

"There really is something about simple beauty of a polaroid picture. I know they don't have the greatest quality, and they don't have the most detail... but there's something about them that has always stuck with me. I imagine this is how musicians feel about vinyl vs CDs. Pictures taken on a polaroid are less accurate, but that makes them more real. We don't see life in high definition. Feelings warp our perception and change our memories. We don't have direct playback of every moment of life. Polaroids let us fill in the blanks with our own imagination. Our own whimsy. I guess I say 'we' here, but I really mean 'they.' My eyes are a little different. Maybe that's I value the polaroid as much as I do. Lets me bring my imagination into my completely defined world."

"There's a lotta shit going on in the world right now. GenWyld werewolves, Russian Superheroes, hits on ancient occultists. At first it was just a way to get money. I saw how people getting images and videos of crazy shit would get hounded for more. Drop that off at a news station and they'll be paying you in minutes if it's good enough and would get views and clicks. But there's so much more to find in the world than just what'll get attention."

"For me, what was an amateur hobby started to become an obsession. I wanted to find that imagination again. Capture it in a frame, and keep it. A collection of the oddities of the world for me and my friends to enjoy from a distance. An art exhibit of unreal reality."

"I don't know yet, how far I'd be willing to go for this ambition. I don't like killing. I don't much like blood. But... I suppose if someone really wanted to get in the way of my goals... I guess I wouldn't have much to do than ruin their life. Huh. Saying out loud makes it a little more real, doesn't it?"

--AUDIO ONLY--

"My dad and I... we didn't have the most friendly of relationships all the time. I was a bit of a shithead as a kid. Hard to blame me, though with all of the running around the country. But, when we were not at each other's throats, mom would pack us lunches and send us off to the nearest expanse of nature. Sometimes that was four hours in car, sweatin' our asses off in the family jeep, that metal tin can that hadn't had a real service in years. Camping gear in the back clanking around, suspension squeaking from every bump in the road. It was times like that where we seemed to make a truce. 'Look,' he'd tell me without saying anything at all, 'Momma sent us out here, so we may s'well make the most of it.'

"We didn't have too many expensive things. No game consoles, no fancy computers, no nice shoes, not much for a kid to play with. Just an old thinkbook running Windows XP, a usb cable, and my dad's most prized possession: a real nice Canon with all the bells and whistles. Extra lenses for portraits, long range photography, all of that. His gruff personality didn't quite show how much of a nerd he was about photography. Even more than me, and I'm half-a damn camera.

"Well, it was on those trips that his love of photography happened to rub off on me a bit. He made it look easy. He had the patience that only an artist could have. We'd stick in the same spot with our bird calls, our whistles and our voices, and just... wait. Wait until something came by. Wasn't always birds, wasn't always deer, but the moment would come eventually, long as we stayed quiet and watched for it. Photographic memory somehow didn't seem as valuable as the moments dad could capture with his camera. It was his patience, and his timing. Those photos that you see on those National Geographic articles had nothing on what he could make with a press of a button. I always told him he could sell those frames for some real money to a hoity-toity art gallery somewhere. He denied it. 'None of them galleries want these things. We've got the same last name, you ever see a 'Bouhouche' in a gallery like that before?'

"He was right. But that doesn't mean he wasn't cynical about the whole thing. He never tried. I tried to not to take his cynicism with me when I left home. Not sure how much I managed nowadays, but... I definitely took his love of the perfect frame with me. I've seen some shit now... but I know how important it is to not only capture those terrible moments, but also to portray them in a way that people will respond to. Pull at those heartstrings. Some real W. Eugene Smith shit."