Mike Tyson is an iconic treasure from the depths of Brooklyn. I feel that his vulnerable alpha disposition and survival grit have always been too genuine and robust for this current ephemeral and plastic place and time. He needed to be reimagined in a simpler era - a setting that could match the gravity, tragedy and rebirth of this man's tumultuous path while borrowing the nostalgia of the black struggle at the turn of the century.
Mike's facial structure alone is a masterful composition of pure primal structure and grace that gives us plenty to shape with light and atmosphere but his first true love, the pigeons he raised on the rooftop of his childhood home needed to incorporated in this series. His unfiltered love of these precious creatures may be an obvious juxtaposition play but the emotional connection that comes through in his expression betrays a truly exclusive love of these birds. Love was very scarce at 178 Amboy Street.
