RJ

was a day player on “Hand of God.“ But the impression he left on me lasted a lot longer than that. His unique flow and delivery are mesmerizing. There’s a river of nuance beneath anything he does, like multiple shades of color or sound; there's more than meets the eye. He's funny as hell, is blessed with comedic timing, which in turn makes him a pitch-perfect dramatic actor. He's also kind; in Indiana, kindness grows like corn.

A few years later, when I walked onto the set of Boomerang in Atlanta, he was the first to greet me. I was in heaven because I knew what the season would ask of his character and I couldn't wait to help him translate it with a lens. His episode is beyond, and it touches heights that comedy rarely does. A preacher's existential quest to find “God.” Fear, despair, farce, exhilaration, all the big notes that an actor can play, but RJ always brings an undercurrent to it. Like the text bubble that never materializes into a text, his deeper thoughts, motivations don’t materialize into words. It's what's left on the table, what's not said is sometimes the most memorable.

You see, my path into Cinematography was laid by my second cousin, who was a character actor in the classic-era of Hollywood. My first job on a movie was on one of his sets, and his subsequent lessons still guide me today. Cinematography exists to make acting better, and I couldn't agree more.

RJ’s reservoir of creativity feeds his restless obsession to evolve. He's making films, writing, developing, doing stand-up, and acting. I don't know what stage he's at, but he's not yet in his final form, and once he's there, I doubt he'll be finished then. He came to our shoot with an Apple Box, camera, and a few ideas of what he wanted to do. And like the set in Atlanta, I was in heaven all over again. I love actors, and I love seeing them, assisting them in perfecting a moment. He's a #portraitofafriend and #portraitofanartist and portrait of someone I can’t wait to see again. My second cousin has to be smiling somewhere.