Photo Bio #9 - Out With The Old and In With The New

As a teenager I’d spend a ton of time in my bedroom. It was the only place I could really be alone and call my own. My bedroom was where I could play my music, play video games, go on MSN Messenger, and just be myself. I had trouble getting along with my parents as a teenager, not because of rebellion, but simply differing personalities. My mother is a minimalist. If she has something that works, why buy a new one? I had to play my video games on a 13” black and white television for a chunk of my childhood, before upgrading to a 13” color tv purchased from a yard sale.

At the age of twelve, I got a paper route where I would deliver papers every day after school. After three years I got a second route to add to the cash flow a little. I never saved my money, always spent it on new art supplies, music, computers, video games, memorabilia, and of course a bigger television. My bedroom was very small, a single bed took up nearly half of the space. Every time I wanted to buy something I recall my mother saying, “You can’t, you’ll have nowhere to put it in your room” but that was never the case. I’d always find a spot and eventually made my tiny closet my office space with my computer. By the end of my teen years, I found myself becoming a bit of a jack of all trades. I had a vast knowledge of music, video games, and a foundation in photography.

At the age of 19 I moved to London (Canada) for college, the first thing I did a couple weeks before classes started was buying a queen size mattress. It was comfortable and big enough for me. Being 6 feet tall, my feet would hang more than a foot off the end of the old one, so this was a nice change. I took down most of the posters on my old bedroom walls, took a few of the sentimental things with me, and put the rest into storage. I have since had a fear of tiny bedrooms.

These are the only shots I really have of it in its maximum capacity,