Javier
Portrait with Nick Collura
Description: A portrait of a young person in winter gear standing in a snowy outdoor environment. He and another person film the surrounding landscape using drone equipment.
Portrait with Zachary Maxwell Stertz
“My mom has always been there for me. My dad was a part of my life a lot. So that’s more memorable than most things I can think about in my childhood. I love my dad a lot. He’s funny, and I go to him always. My dad and my uncle were longtime buddies. They treated me with care. You know, they took me places. I appreciate that a lot. I grew up on the south side. Family first, always. I have some really funny memories with my family — my cousins. We experienced a lot together, a lot of cool moments. I think about them a lot. I don’t have to be in a situation. I can think about it and it changes my whole mood around and my confidence. So I think about it just to move my day forward.
People would describe me as good vibes. People who come around me know I am a person always having a smile - always get good energy from me. If someone has a bad problem with me, I like to fix it. Because I don’t like being in a bad situation where like I don’t want to talk to you no more type stuff. I don’t really like that energy. I like to just like to make a lot of friends.
When people see me, I want people to see me as someone they could talk to.
I’m big into photography. I love photography. I like it so much that I think I believe I took a photo when I was like six. My mom and dad had a dinner, like a wedding. And I was holding the camera taking pictures. I had a big camera around my neck and stuff. And it’s a famous picture in our family. It’s like a portrait and everything. And I look at that picture sometimes and be like, it’s a young me looking at my future. When I grow older and have my own camera, just different from being young in that portrait, and then taking another one but me bigger in the same pose, with a bigger camera. My mom with my dad -- that would be really cool. I’ll put those two photos out, and stand between them. Take another portrait on a timer.
Someday I want to take drone shots like National Geographic. I’ll never forget this one day I was out surrounded by nature and I looked down the road I was on and saw the trees on both sides of the road, covered in snow and I just stopped. It was so beautiful, I made a frame with my hands and tried to remember it. It’s in my mind and I’ll never forget it.
One of my dreams for the future is to take a famous picture of the city of Milwaukee. Just make it a nice time of the day, sunset maybe, or maybe morning with the clouds. If I have the drone and the best camera to hook it up to, that’s the first thing I’m going to do, just go off to the nearest point and just fly it out as high as I can or go out near the end so I can zoom out of Milwaukee.
Another one of my dreams that I always look focus on is no matter what happens, no matter what I end up as, as long as I’m happy. The main emotion I always want to have is happiness.”
Milwaukee, 2019