2025 - No. 12

So... things are getting weird now.

We start off this issue with another repeat from an outing to the City Market. Actually, two repeats.

Annika opens this issue. I found her around the City Market back in July, but we first crossed paths in October 2024. She also started out this year's No. 6 issue. And now she starts out this one... And the second repeat is Rubi, who I photographed this time around... right after... Annika...

Two repeats in a row has happened before. The very striking example on that is from 2025 - No. 4 with Megan and Nadia (here and here) back in June. But the same person starting off two issues... that hasn't happened, as far as I can recall.

But those two repeats start off another very successful Sunday. First at the flea market where I also found Anna enthusiastically modeling with her fan. Then the evening outing near Kansas City Live! where I'd find Milly toking out with her skateboard, followed almost immediately by the incredibly hot Erin ready for a KC Chiefs watch party.

Going into October, I decided to take different paths with the intent of... avoiding prospective subjects. Taking a new path where I knew I'd very likely not find anyone to photograph. This was in part because I wanted to slow things down a bit - though I still ended up filling this magazine in about two weeks.

But you know as well as I do that... fate is a bitch with a dark sense of humor who decided that night she needed to get her rocks off and that I'd be her toy. By having me cross paths with Ruth... An unexpected encounter that would then go... well... even further beyond unexpected to the point I questioned for quite a while whether it actually happened...

Ruth would tell me later that she "always wanted a photographer to randomly come up to [her] and ask to take [her] photos!" And Noelle would say something similar about the photos I took of her the next evening when I found her at the City Market with her scooter about to take off.

Cassidy represents a bit of a change of pace here, too. She was sitting in the back corner of the Fazoli's where my wife and I are regulars known by everyone who works there plus the district manager. I caught her attention as she was walking by our table. So lucky I had my camera with me that day.

Rounding out the issue is Mandi, a traveling artist who was painting one of the mural spots along the Riverfront. She was definitely a bit of an exhausted hot mess when I photographed her, but still hot nonetheless.

This issue's cover feature is the very enthusiastic Aubri. Her reaction to me telling her that I'm a street photographer was reminiscent of the four friends going to the Deftones concert who were featured on last issues' cover.