Story + Photos Kristy Benjamin
As a photographer, I never know what’s going to happen when I show up to meet my subjects for a shoot. Will they be shy? Eccentric? Awkward? Maybe a little out-there? Who knows, but I’m stuck with them and they’re stuck with me for a few hours while we take photos. On their end, they’re likely just as curious, but they’re trusting enough in my work to show up. No pressure, right?
Waiting in the car for folk musician Catch Prichard, real name Sawyer, I spotted him walking up with some clothes in one hand and a tall can of PBR in the other. I was relieved. We were going to get along perfectly.
It was an especially hot Saturday afternoon in LA. Sawyer’s from Oakland, but had driven down for the weekend, and we met up in Echo Park. As we chatted and drank a few beers at the top of a hill, that pre-shoot anxiety had dissipated, and the shoot felt less like work and more like hanging out with an old friend.
You can sense his easygoing presence in his soulful music. The moment you hear his voice, you’re left in awe that this is coming out of a young, living human being and not from a dusty old record from decades past. His voice is notably deep, and somehow sounds both controlled and relaxed at the same time. It seems to transcend era and time. It’s warm and inviting, organic but meditative; it closes that gap between stranger and friend.
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