Photographer Viko Kidd - - Has His Own Brand of Millennial Magic...and Madness.
Understanding Hudson
Valley, New York native Victor Todd - -
his aesthetic, his essence, and his eventual emancipation.
Let's start in the middle
and work our way out. After having been homeless on the streets of
Atlanta for almost two years in 2006, Victor Todd ended up on a
drug-driven, somewhat journalistic journey across the country. Even
though he was content to live on the streets day by day, with
everything he owned in his backpack, he knew he had to do something
different. He needed to escape, to discover, to experience things
that he was not used to. Through a series of intrepid interludes he
ended in, as he says, a “relationshit” with a former
drug dealer turned long-distance truck driver who wanted to take him
for a ride. Victor was reluctant, but not having many viable options
he decided to take that show on the road - - mainly because his
partner at the time provided him with what he “needed.”
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| Cleaning Lady by Viko Kidd |
The 18-wheeling road-winding journey was initially filled with moments of “treasured beauty” as he
rode shotgun through Green Bay, Wisconsin, El Paso, Texas, and as far
as Sacramento, California. He enjoyed and often endured this
poor man's pilgrimage in pursuit of his passion and hoping to find
his purpose despite the blurred lines of his “relationship”
over the two years.
Along the way, he bought throw-away
cameras to chronicle the many “ahh-hah,” “ohh
yea” and “aww shit” moments and there were many.
While on the road with his partner, they laughed, Victor cried, they
made love, and more often than not, war. “In between the moments
of madness, I found tranquility in taking pictures.” In 2008,
with his backpack filled with a few clothes and 10 – 12 throw-away
cameras from his reluctant road trips, Victor ended the madness by
fighting his way out of a hotel room in Tulsa, Oklahoma. “I knew
if I didn't get outta there, he was gon' kill me.” For Victor, it was one of those moments, where any of us would ask ourselves,
“how the hell did I get here?”
The fork in Victor's road appeared when
he was 15 and he and his mother moved to Winston Salem, NC. It was
there he got “buck wild.” A product of a Black father, who
wasn't present and a White mother who reared him in a relatively
homogeneous white community, Victor had somewhat of an identity
crisis. So after he escaped that hotel, he returned to North Carolina
to reflect, to re-connect, and most importantly get sober.
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| Mama, Mama by Viko Kidd |
Victor and I had been on the call for
just over an hour. My questions were often followed by long periods
of silence. He was reflective, uncertain. He was warm, yet careful.
As he shared anecdotes of his journey, I scanned his Instagram page
looking through his collection of images. Much like the man, his work
feels lonely, and distant and affirms his self-proclaimed socially
awkward, quiet persona. There is also a resonant, yet tenuous peace,
a calm that I suspect followed the storms of his life. His journey
toward sobriety has not been seamless, but he has found a more
constructive way to balance the conflicting and often contradictory
parts of his life.
In December of 2016, he bought his
first professional camera - - a Nikon D3400. This was an important
milestone for Victor, ”It was the moment that I decided to
become [photography], to invest in myself. I never went to school
for this. I'm self-taught, and I spend a lot of time watching YouTube
videos and then I go out and apply what I have learned. For the most
part, I work and I shoot....that's it. And If I think it is good
enough, I post it on my Instagram.” And
after this revelatory recounting of that moment, Victor once again
grew silent. Victor may not have much to say when you
speak with him, but through his photography, he will have much for the
world to see.
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| Outgrown Childish Things |
His journey continues as he hopes to
soon take another road trip abroad, alone and on his own terms, to
document more “ahh-hah,” “ohh yea” and “aww shit” moments
from countries around the world.
This article was initially printed in ArTL ISSUE 03
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