Finding Refuge

Nineteen-year-old David Herrera escaped the Colombian guerrillas that killed his father and made it to Bowling Green, but life in America has given him problems he can’t escape from.

Herrera practices soccer outside his church, Corazones Cristianos. His family fled Colombia when guerrillas forced them off their land because they wanted to use it to grow cocaine. His mother and eight siblings made it to Bowling Green safely, but his father was not so lucky. “I was a kid, I didn’t know what was happening,” he said. “I know I thank God I’m here.”

Herrera currently lives with his sister in a Housing Authority duplex. He had to drop out of high school and work full time with Construction Amigos to have enough money to live.

Herrera helps his friend, Mateo Lopez, 20, put a spoiler on his car. Herrera would rather work for free than have idle time to think about the state his life is in, he said. “When I’m not working I think about serious things like child support money I don’t have and that I’m an adult in this situation,” he said.

Most of Herrera’s daily work is painting and construction. When business is good he makes $300 a week, but usually makes less.“The only time I feel okay is when I’m working. When I’m not doing anything it’s depressing because I’m not getting anywhere,” he said.
Due to her mother having full custody, Herrera only gets to see his two-year-old daughter Angelica at church three days a week. He doesn’t argue over seeing her more often after her mother’s family called the police and accused him of being drunk and high when he was taking care of her. Nothing was proved in court, but he prefers not to deal with the law again.

“Nobody this young wants a kid, but when it’s there you have to take care of her, love her,” he said.

On Sundays Herrera plays electric keyboard in the church band. He doesn’t consider himself as faithful as most of the congregation, but takes comfort in the company of people he knows as well as getting to see his daughter. “I wish to be with her, but she’s always with her mom or grandma and they wont let me see her,” he said about Angelica.
Herrera watches indoor soccer games at the church after mass with one of the girl’s teams. He never played soccer in Colombia, but enjoys watching and playing now.
He uses church and work as means to avoid thinking about the trials he’s come upon in life.
Herrera is unsure what his future relationship will be with his daughter. He hopes that she will continue to love him as she does now, but fears that her mother will make her think he’s a bad person.

“The only girl who’s name I’ll get tattooed on me,” he said about the tattoo on
his back.

Herrera shares a room with his nephew in his sister’s house. “My sister’s the only one helping me out, letting me live in her house,” he said. He used to live on his own, but had to move in with his sister when child support became too much for him to afford. “I always think I want to go back to Colombia to get away from things I think about here, but here is okay,” he said. “But it’s not the country’s fault, it’s my fault what I’ve done.”

Reflection from the Pick-up Artist

Jonathan Green wrote a blog post about the experience of having me follow him around for the week, check it out http://www.organicseduction.com/famous-story-photos/
Pretty cool read, at least to me.

The Caretaker

Here's my multimedia piece for the picture stories assignment of 'love'. I'll probably re-edit this at some point, but now is not that time. Thanks for watching.

The Caretaker from Austin Anthony on Vimeo.

The Pick-up Artist

Jonathan Green, 30, videotapes a lesson entitled ‘How to Get a Girlfriend’ for his website OrganicSeduction.com in a studio he set up in his mother’s basement. Green has been practicing pick-up for over 3 years and made close to $60,000 in London, England two years ago coaching. He returned home to Nashville after his student visa ran out in 2009, and is adjusting to the new environment. Green began researching pick-up after having his heart broken by a girl who was cheating on him.


In Nashville, Green spends most of the week working on remodeling his website, a stark contrast to his days in London, where he would go out six nights a week, he said. He’s spent much of the past year teaching himself search engine optimization, marketing and other business skills; as well as reading dozens of books with topics ranging several social sciences. Some other pick-up artists have criticized him fro his ‘numbers’ being low, he’s slept with 30 women. He responds to the critics by saying, “Would you rather have a coach that gets laid or a coach that gets you laid?”


Routine is a key to Green’s success. He preaches that being in control of your appearance and environment is the first step towards the confidence required for pick-up, and shaving his back is a part of his ritual before he goes out. “I didn’t even know my back was that hairy until a girl asked me to put my shirt back on so she could give me a massage.” He said.


The clothing philosophy Green follows is to dress 10% better than everyone else in a given club, and that means accessories. “Everything I wear has a story behind it, so that if a girl asks about something I can talk about it for 30 minutes.” He said. He also based his hair on the comic book character Wolverine. He read in a book that people make judgments in the first 10 seconds of meeting someone, so his goal is to have his hair and face be interesting enough for all 10 seconds.


Green, a fellow pick-up artist Nick, and student Seth Cardew, 20, walk down the streets of Nashville towards a club. Cardew first went to Green a year ago to help get over Selective Mutism that had kept him from talking to most people his whole life. Cardew lied and told his mother he needed money for textbooks and used the money to pay for a counselor and for Green’s lessons, which are at least $100. “It needs to be enough money that they take it seriously.” Green said.


Green dances in the gay bar Play in Nashville. He enjoys the challenge of sleeping with lesbians, he said.


Cardew goes to Green for advice with a group of girls. When coaching, Green usually stays off to the side and tells his students what to say to approach a woman, then lets the student handle it from there. Green describes most of his students as extremely shy when they first come to him. “I help nice guys get laid more, it’s like a war against assholes.” He said.


Green talks to a girl while in line for the bathroom at Nashville’s 12th and Porter. If he’s coaching a student, Green makes sure not to approach any women until the student has at least gotten a phone number from a girl.


While talking to a woman, a man bumped into the table Green was sitting at and spilled a drink on him. Shortly after this, another man came and took the woman off to the dance floor. About the incident, Green said, “At that point I had already lost interest in her after she said her dream was to be a professional shopper.”
Green didn’t go home with anyone that night, but Cardew got a girl’s phone number so he considered the night a success. In the future, Green hopes to move his business to Hawaii and plans on eventually making over $100,000 a year.

12th and Porter

An unrelated frame from the story I've been working on. A couple shares a moment in Nashville's 12th and Porter nightclub.