A while back, my friend Ross Mayfield and I hung out at his place to catch up. Ross is a Brooklyn-based artist of many talents. He’s a composer, producer, musician, songwriter, singer, and more. I hadn’t seen him more than a handful of times since we were both attending UT Austin’s film program. We caught up on his rooftop, he showed me his home studio, then we decided to mess around and take these photos.

In February 2023 he released a single called “always on my mind” and used the first shot in this set as the cover art.

When considering these photos and Ross’ new song, one thing that comes to mind is that I love how the creation process can change so significantly from one project to another. The resulting piece of art can come together into a form that’s wildly different than what you imagined, yet you can still end up with something you love, and sometimes it’s even better than what you originally had in mind.

Ross creates a lot of short loops and shares them in these cool videos that he films in his home studio. He doesn’t go back and revisit those loops to expand them. He usually just makes them, releases them, and moves on. This new single is the very first time he’s gone back to one of those loops and expanded it into a full song. The initial loop was something he looked at and never imagined it being a full song, yet through this unexpected process he’s created a song that he’s proud of.

When myself and most other photographers shoot, there are times when our shoots are meticulously planned in advance, and there are times when we go somewhere with no plans, bringing our camera with us just in case. Despite going into the evening with no plans, we were able to capture some shots that I’m proud of, including one that could accompany Ross’ new song. An end result that was totally unexpected for both of us.

Stream “always on my mind” by Ross Mayfield wherever you listen to music.

Brooklyn, NY. August 2022.