Jayden
Portrait with Sara Stathas
Description: A teenager walks in a sunny hospital hallway. He wears a doctor’s coat and a stethoscope around his neck.
Portrait with Zachary Maxwell Stertz
“This movie on Netflix - it was, like, 2014 when I watched it, I think. It was called Gifted Hands, and it was about a black brain surgeon that’s - that helped people, the brains, like Siamese twins or whatever. He separated them, and I want to be that person that helps people, that they won’t - like, help them so they could be a better person or something like that.
And I just fell in love with it. And, like, fell right over [phonetic] the movie and I just instantly told to my mom, “I want to be a brain surgeon.”
Because in movies, in regular movies, we really don’t see an African American helping - well, not necessarily helping, but, like, you know, working hard, like, going into it and helping people’s lives. And we really don’t see that in all type - and, like, movies. So, that’s what - it, like, stuck out to me.
I’m a family guy. I’m, like, a family person. I like - love to hang around family.
I want to be the nest parent to my kids and want them, you know, to say, “Oh, he was the best parent.” But, like, not the best, because nobody could be the best. But, you know, a good parent to my kids and be a photographer and able to take care of my children.
I’d just make the world a better place so people will be safe walking down the street at, like, eight p.m. or by themselves, walking the dog or something like that. I just want people to be safe in your own city that you were born and raised in. So, I would zap the world to make it more safe.”
Milwaukee, 2018