It's 4:30 in the AM. 
I've been driving all night towards the border, racing the approaching sunrise like a soldier marching into battle. 
It's still dark when we arrive, but already the air is thick with heat and the smell of death. 

 She strips.  I watch. 

She sets up her camera and snaps ambiguous self portraits.

I watch.

She moves like a foreign language.  Wrinkles up her face in unconscious pantomimes.  Twists her body just so. 
Another time, another place and I might have kissed her then, if only to share in this quiet intimate moment between her and the lens.

Instead, I watch.

And then it's my turn.

I stop watching and start documenting.

Bang.  Click.  Bang.  Click.

Photography is a weapon, the camera my gun.

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My name is Chad Michael Ward, and I'm going to war.

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Photography is magic.  Smoke and mirrors. 

With a wave of the wand you can become whatever you want.  You can become whatever I want.

Lover.  Fighter.  Virgin.  Whore.

Photography is black magic.  Voodoo and sacrifice.

It's early January and I find myself out in the desert.  Out in Vegas.  The aftermath of a weekend fueled by sex, drugs and rock n' roll.

I'm sitting on the couch watching the girls play dress up, then dress down. Playfulness becomes something more.  I pick up my camera; there's a story to be told here.

 A moment to be shared.

 An act of magic performed before your very eyes.

---

My name is Chad Michael Ward, and I'm a magician.

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 We've been up all night.  

 Drinking. Smoking.  

She's naked and singing and dancing around the room, spinning and hollering and falling down;  I'm sitting in the corner, watching her with predatory eyes.  

Drunk.  Stoned.

We intended to do a shoot hours earlier; the kind where I do fucked up things to her fucked up body and record the fucked up results on film.  The kind that ends in blood and bruises and tears and a smile and a thank you.

Instead, we drank and we smoked.

Take my picture. 

She insists. 

I comply.

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My name is Chad Michael Ward.  I'm not a real photographer, but I play one on t.v.

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