Man it looked beautiful as I was ending my work day. Coincidentally, my sister, Crystal aka Crisp Styles, was picking me for drinks. So I asked her to hang out with me while I was observing the nice sunset.
Going through my old photo collages…
The original photos were taken two and half years ago. The camera was made out of a cement block with a 4×5 105mm lens taped to it.
If you can find her work, Liz Haywood, she’s quite an amazing illustrator.
Photo by Brigitte Lacombe (see her work!)
“We’re there to put that script on the screen, not to show how good we can make it look, or how beautiful a designer we are, or how great a cinematographer we are….Some of the most beautiful movies I’ve seen haven’t been very good. It’s very easy for technique to overshadow the content.”
Minority Report | A Discussion on Food from Mister Jakyl on Vimeo.
Direction: Mr. Jakyl and Timothy Young (timdidthat.com)
Food Styling: Timothy Young
Design: Timothy Young
Photograpy: Mr. Jakyl
Editor: Mr. Jakyl
Music: Elvis – Devil in Disguise
credits:
In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan
The Future of Food Documentary (www.thefutureoffood.com)
This is an ongoing collection of photos dealing with my mom’s battle with cancer. http://www.mrjakylworks.com/blog/archives/385
The quiet beginning…
This is our family friend and our first neighbor when my parents moved to the states. She watched me when I was young and she, herself, has an amazing family of her own which I grew up with. She brought up stories of me growing up and how bad I was. I enjoyed them and loved her eye for detail in prepping the flowers for the ceremony.
There’s something about food preparation in our culture. My mom finds it so important that I know how to cook, she reminds every time I see her.
My dad on the right admiring the sticky rice basket’s design.
My mom prepares for the monks to arrive while she talks about her cancer and what’s treatments she’s going through. I thought she looked beautiful in her traditional outfit.
Lexus bringing the food and getting it ready for the monks.
They arrive looking cool. We have a temple in Murfreesboro, which houses about 8-16 monks from Laos at various times.
My dad like he always is, lightens up the room by making a funny comment.
They start lighting the candles which melt into the bowl. The candles are representations of our body and soul. Once they melt and form in the herbal water which we have to shower with once it’s done. They also sprinkle the water as blessings all over the house and everybody in the room.
Everything in these bowls are given to the monks. Monks don’t acquire anything unless it’s given to them. So for example, a monk can only eat what’s given to him. They also stop eating anything solid after 12pm and start fasting taking in only liquids.
My favorite part is the vast amount of good food.
Each person also gets to bless us by wrapping a cotton bracelet around our wrist.
In the end, all we hope is for my mom to get better.
My little brother Lexus.
Lexus has always been one of my biggest influences on me for perfecting one’s craft. He practices golf 4-6 hours a day and will push his passion to the limit. He’s somewhat a golf prodigy, winning adult tournaments since when he was 13-years-old.
He’s also another solider helping my mom out battle out her cancer. He has a totally different personality from me, but it balances us out as a family.
If you have a chance follow his journey on the golf course @ Lexus Golf Facebook Page
This is my mom and she’s one of the greatest human beings I know. It’s hard to write about people you love because there so many things you want to cover from the bad times and the good times that happen between you and them. Lately, it’s been even harder.
My mom was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma cancer back in May. For the past two months, she’s been receiving radiation treatments for her cancer. However, since the beginning of this month, my mom’s cancer turned out to be more aggressive than we thought. Her doctor is now moving her into chemotherapy.
I’ve been private about it until this point, I decided to pick up my camera not planning or caring whether they’ll be good or bad. I’ve seen a few photographers that have documented family sickness. It’s seemed as a outlet for them. For me, it’s something I can’t fathom in words.
My parents and my aunt from Paris, France came to visit me this past weekend. I took them around town getting Dim Sum and showed my aunt where I worked and lived. I was happy that my mom was getting out because I bet she’s been bored sitting around the house. She brought her medical papers for me to read because she doesn’t quite understand English. We talked about things she may encounter during her chemotherapy, which she’s still scared of. I asked if I can take her photo and she covered her neck not wanting me to get her scar.
I finally convinced her, telling her that it’s just a mark to remind us of the battles we are fighting or fought in our lives and how we come to overcome / deal with them.
The scar is how they found the cancer. She had a large throat cyst that had to be surgically removed. Once it was removed, the doctor did some test on it and found cells that was cancerous. Then it started from there.
The MotherF***ing BURN UNIT
“Step into the realms of space where nobody goes
Only the baddest motherf***ers are the ones that are chose!
Some of the coolest individuals on the planet we said
Best believe that we can buck or give a damn if we cared!” – Big Boi
http://vimeo.com/channels/burnunitatl