My friend Stephen Yoshen is the most capable and the most preposterous person I’ve ever known.
Capable in the sense that he can build a whole house in a matter of weeks, on his own when necessary.
Preposterous, well...
…he once shot himself in the belly with a nailgun, used a pair of nailnips to pull out the 16-penny nail, and kept on working. Or sometimes, he’ll be two stories high and he’ll LEAP from one extension ladder to another, just because he can.
He’s a dancer/carpenter, which is a subspecies of human we have in relative abundance out here in the hilltowns of western Massachusetts. Stephen and his dancer friends have built who knows how many houses in these hills, often for outrageously cheap.
This is a portrait of Stephen in his shop, which is also the community's shop. The doors are never locked.
Stephen is 70 now, and he has seen some shit. You know that fish in the Elizabeth Bishop poem: huge, its skin hanging in strips, speckled with barnacles, five old hooks stuck firmly in its mouth but the fish is still breathing, battered and venerable? That's Stephen.
When Stephen’s shop burned down in November of 2025 — and, a couple months later, when it was clear that the time had come for his leg to be amputated — I decided to try and document some of the story.
The podcast episode uses a bunch of nailguns to tell the tale of Stephen Yoshen and the Art of Losing.
Listen on Spotify
Listen on Apple Podcasts
The photobook documents the requiem for Stephen's shop and the shop's rebuilding.
For more info on the photobook, click HERE
It was my immense good fortune — while working on this project — to talk to many people who love Stephen dearly. The interviews occurred during a complicated moment in my own life, and they did that mysterious thing where I got answers to questions I had no idea I was asking. So I want to thank everyone who participated, even if your voice isn’t in the final story.
And thanks, of course, to Stephen, for saying yes.
Ben James — September 2026
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