Portraits Of Boston: 'What Do I Have To Lose?'

“I got laid off two years ago. As soon as that happened, my wife filed for divorce. It was an ugly divorce—I didn’t see it coming. She didn’t want me to work for myself. She would rather I worked for someone else and bring home a big paycheck. Anyway, so I thought to myself, I’m not going to sit around, collect unemployment, and wait for somebody to pay my bills. I’m 50; I’m an able-bodied person. I’m going to start knocking on doors. What do I have to lose? I was practically homeless at the time. I came here and nobody wants to do this work. I’ll do it all day long, are you kidding me? I’ll do it on Saturdays and Sundays. Somebody was going to help me this morning, but when he looked down from the roof—and it looks a lot higher when you are up there than it does when you are down here—he said, ‘I quit.’”

Portraits of Boston is a project of independent photographer Ivan Velinov. He is regularly sharing some of his favorite portraits with WBUR. Visit his website to see the hundreds of portraits he has taken on the streets of Boston.