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studies for a portrait of terry murphy
Terry died on September 21, 2025. We had been friends for over fifty years—the brother from my chosen family. Since his death I have found myself returning to images of him again and again. It is how my grieving manifests.
These images were made on October 30, 1976, at a Halloween party. Terry arrived late after seeing the Ramones. When he finally came through the door he was still carrying the velocity of the show with him—sweaty, loud, laughing, unable or unwilling to stand still. The camera could barely contain him.
We were in our mid-twenties and full of hope and promise and a boundless sense of invincibility. Young enough to believe friendship, music, parties, and our own bodies would somehow outrun time.
Now the blur in these images feels unavoidable. Memory moves this way. Grief moves this way. Terry emerges from the grain and darkness for an instant, animated and incandescent, before disappearing back into motion again. These images are part elegy, part conversation, an attempt to keep him briefly in motion. The camera struggles to hold him still. So does memory.
sample images
