Picture Stories Weeks 8 and 9

So over the past couple weeks (actually past couple months, really) I've been working on some portraits of the people who live at Bowling Green Towers. The people there are incredible and have some really unique stories. I've been around these people for a few months now, so photographing them was a lot of fun.  I also included a few shots from a story I am shooting for the yearbook here about a student who is also a hockey player/farmer. Enjoy! #ilovepeople

Sharon Graham gets some fresh air outside her home, a place that was once associated with smoking. Graham celebrated one year of not smoking two days before. She smoked for 35 years until her granddaughter was born and smoking prevented her from seeing the child. "I made up my mind that I had to see her and have her in my life. That's what got me going to quit smoking," she said. "I've got a little one I have to live for and she's special to me." 

15-year-old Robbie Stevens lives at Bowling Green Towers with his grandmother who he calls, “mom.” “At the age of three I was adopted by her. I never really knew my real mom. We are pretty close. I try and take care of her every day,” he said. Stevens is currently part of JROTC at Bowling Green High School and hopes to go into ROTC and someday the military. “I want to join the army because I think I could be able to do better for this country.”  

Four years ago, 25-year-old Tyler Byrd was hit head-on by an 18-wheeler, leaving him with massive head trauma and amnesia. “Family, friends, childhood, favorite foods, favorite places to go, I completely forgot I had a girlfriend at the time,” said Byrd, who has spent the past several years working to relearn his past. Right after the accident he lived with his parents, but has been living independently for the past year and is hoping to return Western Kentucky University for the fall 2014 semester. “When I get all my memories back, I’m going to go back to college, get my automotive mechanics degree, move out of the towers, get a nice house, maybe get married and just be happy.” 

Kevin Cross stands in the hallway of his home at Bowling Green Towers. Cross has been all over the country working various jobs including traveling with the circus, being a bar bouncer, and DJing. He finally came to Bowling Green to move closer to his girlfriend. "How you are doing depends on your view of the grass: you're either looking down at the blades or up at the roots," he said. 

Tony Lam sits in his apartment preparing to take his ex-wife to a doctor appointment. Originally from Hong Kong, Lam came to the United States to attend Western Kentucky University where he met his wife. The two were married for 38 years before Lam's interest in gambling became a problem. "I made a big mistake," he said. They divorced in 2002, but remain friends. 

Oscar Donelow spent many years as a truck driver all over the United States, but during his off time he would work on a very different kind of project. “Whenever I was driving truck and I didn’t have a load, I’d go in the truck stops and sit at the counter and crochet stuff. I had many guys say, ‘you’re gonna make somebody a good wife someday.’ And I’d turn around and say, ‘look at all the women who are coming and looking at the stuff I do,’” said Donelow. He likes to crotchet as well as sews quilts and has been doing so for the better part of his life. “When I was nine-years-old I was in foster care and these two little ladies were crocheting. I asked them to teach me. So they gave me a little wooden crochet stick and a ball of yarn so I’ve been doing it almost 40 years.”