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Strolling around the neighborhood yesterday, I observed two men taking pictures of what looked like over 100 rugs in a warehouse parking lot. Something about it was alluring, especially with the sunset in the background. After observing for few moments on the opposite side of a chain link fence, I struck up conversation with one of the guys and learned the flash floods we had received the night before had gotten into one of his oriental rug locations. The two were laying the merchandise out to dry. I told him the news I had gotten a few hours earlier: my mechanic’s shop had also flooded. All of his tools, his customer’s vehicles, and most of his rare, vintage, European car collection were gone. His only customer’s car that had survived was my own. It just happened to be on the lift at the time the flooding arrived. I introduced myself and asked if I could come around the fence and take a few pictures. The man I was speaking with told me his name was Djalal. He wholesales oriental rugs from all over the world, although, the highest quality rugs come from Iran — where he is from. I got a tour of inside the warehouse and saw the rugs in the parking lot were only a small fraction of his inventory at this location. This warehouse was only one of them. I met Djalal’s wife who started taking photographs of some of the inventory recently — they are building a website to get into retail. The camera and lighting setup they had was impressive. From what I gathered, most of the wet rugs will be OK… but what a pain it must have been to lay all of them out and try to clean up the mess after a flood.

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My first photobook.

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