“Take my picture” I turned to see who had unexpectedly offered me a chance to capture a portrait as I wandered down a fishing pier in Oyster Point, just south of San Francisco. It wasn’t often I would get such a proposal, so I quickly struck up a conversation with Anthony Gordon de la Cruz. Anthony was clearly a local, and had in fact being fishing off that pier for years. He was very much at ease in his environment as he sat around with his friends. Rods, fresh catch and other assorted fishing paraphernalia lay sprawled out all over the wooden deck, and half a dozen rods were jammed into carefully drilled out holes in the pier rails, patiently waiting for a catch. “Yesterday my brother shot himself in the head. I cleaned the brains away”, Anthony declared dryly as he posed at the edge. He had a forced smile, and appeared somewhat inebriated. His eyes were sagging, his expression peculiar, yet he was friendly and apparently pleased that I would take the time to carefully compose the shot on a sunny Sunday afternoon. As I took in the information I captured some more images of Anthony, and we struck up a conversation about his brother, about the unhappiness of a wealthy man, the pitfalls of empty desires. Somehow the conversation meandered into Anthony’s previous life as a full time fisherman on a fishing boat. His hands betrayed how he understated the true nature of the hard work he performed in those times. I wrote down his contact information (I’m too old-school for e-mail, he answered at my suggestion), and promised to send him a print of his portrait. His humanity stuck with me all day…