Interview with Adolfo Doring

Adolfo Doring is a New York-based filmmaker, photographer, and artist. His debut feature film “Metro” premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival. Currently, he is working on a photography book titled Nomenclature and the release of his narrative feature, Thinly Veiled. This is his take on Love and Heartbreak for PenTales.

PenTales: What are the ingredients of a good photograph?

Adolfo: Time and space.

PenTales: In one sentence, what do you hope people will take away from the picture you submitted to “Love and Heartbreak”?

Adolfo: A feeling.

PenTales: Tell us about a favorite character in a story, and why you relate to this character.

Adolfo: Todd Hackett (The Day of the Locust by Nathaniel West). His mind organizes large clusters of seemingly unrelated details into a bigger picture. And other reasons.

PenTales: Tell us a 100-word story about yourself to help us get to know you better.

Adolfo: On or around September 15, 1988 and on a whim, I decided to break the routine of ordering lunch into the studio. The routine had been established decades before I ever worked there at the Joel Brodsky Photography Studio. Something of a feeling, a bug, crept through my whole being that day. I held the menu as Chris, the studio assistant, stood by me waiting with a kind of blank stare that looked beyond me, away from the darkroom and towards the client lounge where Joel and Valerie Brodsky sat. Behind them, towering over their heads, the Empire State Building was visible through the magnificent skylights. Behind them, green ferns sat on the countertop of a brown 1970’s cabinet from which a powerful Sony amplifier sent, through its wires, the electrical impulses that were to become waves of Rock and Roll thrust into the air by the speakers.

“I’m going out to lunch,” I declared into the air thick with the Creedence Clearwater Revival.

“What?” Chris inquired.

“I’m going out to lunch,” I repeated, handing him the menu back. I stood up from the stool, and took my jean jacket from the coat rack.

Joel turned over. Valerie looked up.

“I’ve got some things to do. I’ll have lunch out today.”

“Ok,” said Valerie.

I could only hear a grunt from Joel. I turned towards the back door of the studio and left. Exiting the building at 30th and 5th in the middle of the day felt better than I had expected. I read about Eisenberg’s Sandwich Shop in a magazine and decided to go there. It was a perfect September day, warm, sunny, dry with clear blue skies. At Eisenberg’s, I sat on the bar and placed an order for a BLT. No sooner had it arrived before me than I heard a girl’s voice, from behind, call my name with a sultry question mark at the end.

I turned around. “Yes?”

“Hi,” she said and stood there smiling slightly. I recognized her as Soledad, the girlfriend of a guy named Joel, a different Joel. “Joel is over there, why don’t you join us at the table?” I looked over at him. He waved friendly, so I shook my head slightly and turned to her again. I wondered if I could get out of it. I looked around for an excuse. I couldn’t find one. “Ok,” I said. I picked up my BLT and followed her deep into Eisenberg’s and unknowingly towards the beginning of the second part of my life.

PenTales: Continue this story (five sentences or less): “Paula couldn’t believe how naïve he was being. As always, he clearly…”

Adolfo: Paula couldn’t believe how naïve he was being. As always, he clearly had underestimated the conflict of being a boy with a girl’s name. Particularly considering that the year was 2063 and that two-thirds of the population of the planet had either been eaten alive by predatory swarms of giant cockroaches or starved to death and then eaten by predatory swarms of giant cockroaches. As Paula stood at the urinal fulfilling one of the many tedious cycles imposed by nature and looking over his shoulder for friend or foe, the words of Kyle White loomed heavy in his mind, “Paula, you are one creepy fag, and I’m going to do the Lord’s work on you, with my rife.” With his eardrums still registering the evil timbre of Kyle’s drawl, Paula wondered about the nature of Man in general and of men and women in particular.

PenTales: Give us one word on “love” and another on “heartbreak.”

Adolfo: Love: Upward; Heartbreak: Downward.

PenTales: What question should we ask the next person (writer, storyteller, or artist) we interview?

Adolfo: Why you?