Hot Monk

I drove to Texas from Los Angeles in 2020. On my way back to LA I stopped in Tucson to visit my friend Tracy. She took me to the San Xavier Del Bac, a mission church considered one of the finest examples of Spanish Colonial architecture in America. It was a brutally hot day. I felt it was utterly insane for a monk to be dressed in those heavy robes while also wearing a mask in such heat. I watched him for a while and witnessed what made him a regular human just like you and me — uncomfortably hot AF. Yes, he needed to keep watch, but he was going back-and-forth from the staggering outdoor heat to the inside AC chill. I captured him in the light looking not at all how he felt when I saw him up close. He was sweating buckets but you can’t tell that here.