ROBERT JAMES CAMPBELL

ABOUT

 

I never knew Robert James Campbell while he was alive, though I’m sure that we crossed paths a few times. He was residing in a subsidized homeless shelter in the small city of Burlington, Vermont while I was a student up the hill at UVM. I probably passed him on Church Street on my way to the bar with my friends to hear the Dave Grippo Band at the Red Square. I learned years later that my friend Chris used to serve him coffee at his favorite cafe on a daily basis, after I showed him a picture of “Bob.” He told me he was always talking about playing Paul Chambers’ bass, and that he seemed to be homeless. Bob and I lived within a mile radius of each other for years as strangers with a 40-year age gap, but the universe was determined to connect us.

 

I first learned about Bob from my former photography professor Dan Higgins the summer after I graduated. Stunted by a failure to launch, I decided to stay in my college town and work in a photo processing lab and also as a cocktail server. My housemate at the time informed me that the photo department was looking for a volunteer to survey some materials left behind by a homeless man after his death earlier that year. There was speculation that the contents of his belongings were photographic, and they should be reviewed before getting tossed in the trash.

 

That was my introduction to Robert James Campbell, and in one day my life was taken over by 6 boxes of a dead man’s belongings. That was what I signed up for, and that is how we “met.” Immediately I started referring to him as Bob.