WHAT THEY WERE THINKING – nytimes.com

Tom Waits and Robert Frank, New York City, 1985

Tom Waits: I was trying to imagine myself as a real New Yorker, and I was having a hard time. My wife was pregnant with our second child; we were living down on 14th Street over a Cuban-Chinese restaurant. But at that moment, I was busting at the seams that Robert Frank was photographing me. I just thought, Shoot me now. The record was called “Rain Dogs,” so we were expecting to find a rainy day, which we did not find. But we found the one rain puddle in the whole park, and I’m kind of down there like a dog. Maybe that was the idea: I’m gonna get down on the dog’s level, and then Robert would get there at a dog’s level with me. Anyway, I don’t know why people in music seem to want to squat down. Maybe we just want to feel close to the earth. I’m still down there, actually. I’m squatting right now.

Robert Frank: I think he saw that puddle, and it was his idea to sit there. Tom’s comfortable that way, and it’s a good angle. I think he’s very aware when he’s being photographed — the stance he takes, the way he moves and the way the picture is going to be. That’s one of his favorite positions anyhow. When he comes in the room, he sits like that.

Interviews by Joanna Milter

Self-Medicator, Rohnert Park, Calif.

Marcy Dolin: I’m lying on my bed, smoking a joint. I smoke about eight a day, and eat a marijuana cookie before I go to sleep at night. I like the peanut-butter ones. I’ve been using marijuana for about 35 years, ever since I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. It takes the pain and muscle spasms away. Without it, I would be living on morphine and other horrible drugs. I couldn’t do that to my family. That’s no life, and I would have ended it. That’s the truth. I used to take a drug called Neurontin, and I just never stopped crying. I was in a fog, totally depressed. I told my doctor that I was going back to just marijuana; he said he would have me arrested if he could. What are they going to do? I’m 71 years old. Are they going to put me in jail? I’m not hurting anybody. It’s just here in my own house.

Interviews by Miki Meek

Three Brothers Mourn a Slain Friend, Juarez, Mexico

Juan Manuel Garcia Delgado, 20: At that moment we were talking about the death of a friend, and I was just thinking what a bummer it was. The day it went down, we told Chino not to go, because there was going to be a soccer game where there was no security, smack in the middle of neighborhoods that had a history of violence. He went to play, and just after the game ended, they killed him. Shot him in the body, then after he died, in the head.

David Antonio Garcia Delgado, 11: I was feeling sentimental and thought, Why kill someone who’s done nothing? Sometimes I think, What am I doing here? Couldn’t I be somewhere else? Someplace where there’s space to just be? My dad wanted to take us farther from here, but it didn’t happen. I was lighting fireworks, dad was watching football. We heard three shots. The first thing I did was look for my family. Everything else didn’t matter. Only my family.

Angel Alberto Garcia Delgado, 22: Well, I was thinking about Chino, mostly that he was so young and that I could have helped him. By the time I thought to tell them not to go down there, they’d already left. Fifteen minutes later I found out that they had killed my friend. Some of us got together and went down to the park. All the thugs had left, and there he was: lying on the ground with a Mexican soccer jersey covering his face.

Interviews by Dominic Bracco

Last-Minute Doubts, New York City

ANNA MEDVEDEVA, 24: The photo was taken the night before my breast-augmentation, chin- and neck-liposuction surgeries, and I was very confused and was thinking, What are you doing with yourself, girl? I spent all that day at home preparing for surgery. I was alone with my fear that night, and I was thinking that I wanted to change my decision. So I tried on the bandage that I would have to wear on my face after the surgery. I felt scared and called my best friend, who really helped me so much. My friend and I talked as Amy took pictures of me. In some, I was nude, and when the light went through the window from the street and I saw myself, I thought, I’m already perfect. My imperfection is my nature. Now, after everything is done, I love it so much. I look to the mirror, and I’m like: “Wow, you’re so sexy. I want you, girl.”

AMY ARBUS: A week before this photo session, Anna told me she was having plastic surgery, and I asked to do before-and-after pictures. Toward the end of this shoot, she started getting nervous about the surgery, and I said, “You can still change your mind.” She was on the phone a lot with her girlfriend, and when we were done, she was looking to see if she had heard back, and that’s when I took that picture. It was the last one I took.

Interviews by Joanna Milter