My friends, after 13 fruitful years in New York City it’s finally time for me to leave. I’m over it. The bloom is off the rose. I’m moving to go be closer to family, help out my parents and enjoy the freedom to work on my art in peace. That’s what I’ve been doing most when I visit them, and it’s just been impossible for me to find enough space & peace in this city to do that.

There are many reasons I feel the need to leave.

I am no longer enchanted with what I once saw here. I hate what I see it turning into and the type of people flooding in. They’ve priced me out, and killed my enthusiasm to document it. I just can’t keep up.

I also need to be with family. I got none of that here. And lately I’ve been feeling that lack harder than ever.

This isn’t necessarily the end of Amazing Strangers. I have enough footage and photos to furnish many other projects. I also have a lot of unused, unseen stuff to put out there. It does however mean the end of my Union Square updates. August will be my final month.

I will still keep up with normalbob.com same as ever. My passion for this is still strong. That’s part of it too. There’s a lot more I want to do.

It couldn’t be more clear to me that I am done with this chapter of my life. It’s been brewing in me for a while now. I’m also really looking forward to seeing where this takes me. I rule out nothing.

Check out an interview I did with Smug Film were I go into further detail on my departure. I’ve got a few unheard stories that you’ll probably find very interesting, and more.