I traveled alone to New York with the intention of shooting everything I saw for 4 straight days. I had anticipated this trip for over a year. When I finally got there, I was suffering the ill effects of a bad cold and cough. I would wake up hacking and simultaneously hearing the fracas of the streets outside the brownstone I was staying in. I would write poetry in my journal until I could fall back asleep, and it occurred to me to capture myself this way.