I barely heard the knock on the studio door. He was beyond shy. “I hate to have you wasting your time on this,” he said, his eyes on the floor. I assured him that everyone was worth photographing, that everyone had value. He looked up, smirking, catching my eye for the first time. “You really believe that, don’t you?” I could tell he did not. “I’ve been used up and tossed aside more times than I care to count,” he said. I suggested that maybe no one had yet recognized his value, but that one day someone would. He smiled, genuinely, at that, and we had our picture.