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The first time we met Nigel, he claimed to have been in prison in Denver for assault…or as a murder suspect…he never quite clarified. When he goes out, he gets extremely drunk and says the wrong thing and usually ends up getting beat-up or arrested. The process of getting drunk and being hungover are important aspects of his identity. The day Carrie turned 18, she moved out of her parents’ house and into an apartment downtown with Nigel. The apartment was a block from our studio and we ended up there with our 8x10 that day. Nigel drank a 12-pack while we worked on this photo. Carrie barely said a word. That summer they’d go everywhere together. Nigel would tell us how they’d sit along the lake and she’d read stories to him. She’d hold his guitar picks while he performed with his surf-punk band, and for a couple days they worked at the bubble bath factory together until the soap fumes got to them. For his birthday, she paid for a Stray Cats tattoo for his forearm with the money she earned as a hostess at a restaurant in a hotel. They moved to Milwaukee together. She got a job right away waitressing at George Webb’s. He’d stay home and get drunk. Eventually she kicked him out. Unemployed and living in Madison with his friend Brett in a bombed out house at age 26, he told us,“I’m like a 16 year old with a fake ID.” © J. Shimon & J. Lindemann 1998 |