A friend in San Francisco handed him a Canon AE-1 as a parting gift. He took it to Rome in 2014 and never put it down.

Perry Hall came up through a broken home on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, juvenile detention, and two years homeless. Skateboarding got him off the street. A camera gave him the rest.

Self-taught in Rome, he spent nearly a decade there, co-founded a photography school, and built a body of work The New Yorker would feature. Today he shoots for brands and magazines, exhibits internationally, and teaches workshops around the world.

He hands the next person the same key someone once handed him.