People who serve on submarines are highly valued by all types of different organizations because we’re smart, dedicated, and workaholics. I got out and got my college degree in 3 years. I had just done 6 years in the Navy and 3 years in college... I was 27 years old. I needed some freedom and some money! I would get some money but not much freedom. I would then go to work for 15 years in the high stress, and workaholic world of Silicon Valley, I never took a break... I never decompressed from being a submariner.

I was always depressed, and always working. I just dove into work and photography became my only escape. I worked hard and took my camera and learned how to become a great photographer and storyteller. I would photograph for over a decade before I would show any of my photography. I traveled and became a world class photo-journalist and fine art photographer as I worked my ass off in somebody's else's tech company. Like I said...workaholic.

There are a million stories of how I collapsed, and what I faced but I would like to fill this space with the story of were I ended up.

After my collapse I ended up rolling into the Oakland VA distressed and not knowing everything that was inside of me. Long story short...I was introduced to a healing circle which was filled with African American Vietnam vets. They told stories of coming back home [from serving] to police brutality in Oakland, discrimination in the workforce, disenfranchisement, the Black Panthers and the civil rights movement. I could relate.

Although we served during different eras, the stories they shared had a common thread of disappointment and frustration at knowing we were oppressed from fully exercising the rights we defended. Basically, we all had walked out of one hell and walked into another. They were the group of folks that began that particular healing process.

In 2010 I began the Homeless Veteran Nighttime Photography Project in the Tenderloin District of San Francisco. I was using my camera to give homeless veterans a positive self- image via photography. I would ride my bike to the neighborhood, at night, and search for homeless veterans to photograph and begin to advocate for them to receive proper care. That’s how the friendships happened and the trust happened. I stopped being Amos, I became LowKeyRider1(LKR1), my artist name because I rode my bicycle at night, with my black hoodie, and my black backpack. People would see me rollin... LowKeyRider1. "Yo, LowKey, people from all over the world say to me now. Crazy shit... TRUTH. LowKey I B.

Then I met Gabe while photographing, a USMC veteran and unhoused vet at the time. We began to photograph together every day. One night Gabe challenged me and said If I thought I was going to really do something for the neighborhood then I should do something for "Crack Alley". I took the challenge and 6 months later Gabe and I created Veterans Alley, right in that very location. I began to learn to paint murals and one thing led to another and here we are almost a decade later with a wonderful project that benefits, veterans, non-veterans and is the pride of a neighborhood. I think we did a great job and look forward to the next 10 years of painting murals in Veterans Alley.

Within a year of creating Veterans Alley I would write thirty plus names of deported veterans there to raise awareness of their plight. No one had ever written their names anywhere. Former Deported Veteran Hector Barajas calls me from Mexico and that's how these friendships with deported vets happened.

Then I met Fabian, the co-founder of the deported veterans project. Fabian came back to LA after he got deported. He is a wonderful advocate for deported vets and wanted to start a veterans mural project in LA's SkidRow. I met Fabian in Los Angeles and he showed me the buildings where we were going to paint. Three days later I got a phone call from him, and he explained been picked up by ICE and was back in Mexico. I told him, no matter where he was I would come and do artwork with you. That’s how the deported veterans mural project happened.

I went down to Tijuana, Mexico and asked deported veterans where would they like to start a mural project. They took me to the airport and canals. Then they drove me to the US-Mexico border fence near in Playas de Tijuana. The project has existed on the border fence since 2012 and contains one of the most famous images regarding the US-Mexico border crisis. The Deported Veterans Mural Project is sister project to Veterans Alley.

What is the reality you are living today post military service?

Myths pervade around military service and veterans. One myth is that of the buffalo soldiers being a symbol of liberation and overcoming oppression. Now, if you were an American Indian and you saw a buffalo soldier during the Indian Wars your heart was filled with dread. You have to come to terms with the fact that you could end up on the wrong side of history. You could end of defeating communism (good thing) or killing American Indians. That's one aspect of it.

The other is the everyday anti-blackness that exists in America. You go away and come home, to people using the n word, the police targeting you, workplace discrimination, predatory home lenders...you name it. For African American veterans America is a war zone.

This is nothing unique for we can document race riots that happened at WWI military bases when black soldiers were fighting and then the discrimination African American GI's experienced after WWII, from the denial of their G.I Bill VA loan rights that housed millions of Americans.

Racism is systemic and as an African American the more you navigate all systems, from the workplace to the museum, racism will be there to greet you at the door.

What does your art represent?

The “Blinded by the Lights" shows how we willingly choose to lose our common sense based upon the belief of things that are not seen. How religion compels us to put ourselves at and others at risk. Many people go to a church, a mosque, or a synagogue and catch the holy ghost with a bonus prize of coronavirus. They then go home as a Covid-19 spreader. It goes to show how many people around the world will take for granted another human being's life over a belief system.

Kinda' sounds like war. Right? That’s what’s happening all over the world today. In the Middle East, Christian Churches and Synagogues in America, etc.

The other is “Truth of the matter.” It speaks for itself. Of course, this is my most censored artwork. You know there are a quite a few African America veterans who are murdered by the police after being in these military environments. In the battlefield you can defend yourself, but here you’re defenseless when you’re coming across the police. You look back and ask yourself "Why did I put myself at risk of this defend a system that censors me, denies me and seeks to destroy me on a daily basis.

“No Pills” is about the over medication of veterans and its consequences. These things lead to high rates in suicide in our community. One obvious answer is through cannabis usage to help treat the multitude of ailments that we suffer from.