The Book by Kirill Orlov

March 9, 2015

The Book by Kirill Orlov

I was in a dumb killer whale costume for a project based on my background. Long story short, I have a real traumatic experience with whales and my professor, the great Dawit Petros, thought I should be dressed as a whale for a self-portrait. Kirill and I were project partners at the time, so around 9am we went shooting in Wall St. It was funny, because at the time, Kirill was telling me about how Keanu Reeves was stalking him. Everywhere he went, he would see Keanu somewhere just hanging out in the background. I found the story hilarious, and we had a good laugh.

It was then, I realized, as I was checking the photos we took on a bench just outside Broad St. station, Keanu was sitting right beside me. I was like ‘cool, I’ma talk to Keanu’ so I talked to him. The guy was one of the most down to earth human beings I ever met. He was having a meeting, reading some stuff, but as I approached him he stopped what he was doing to talk to me. Eventually, things led to another, and he was like, ‘you guys wanna take some shots of me?’. Kirill and I jumped on it right away. Kirill’s shot of Keanu is legendary. Mine, not so much. I also looked like an idiot in our shot together.

So Keanu, if you’re reading this, I want a redo on our shot!

-Choi, David

Kirill has been one of my closest friends in New York. He took care of me when I was homeless, and in the worst and the best, he was always been a brother to count on. He had a portrait series going on on Flickr, which eventually turned into a limited edition book. Here are some of Kirill’s favourite shots from it:

Photographed by Kirill Orlov // www.charlesrocketphoto.com