In a recent interview, he discussed that his mother was physically abused; and, fear for her safety (and that of her son), "fled" – first "sleeping in bushes in wealthy L.A. neighborhoods" and eventually joining the famed Source Family.
[1] Given the Aquarian name Sound by Father Yod, Stone and his mother (renamed Astral) lived in Hawaii with family over the next three years.
With his grandfather financing his formal education, Stone enrolled in the 7th grade at the Highland Hall Waldorf School.
While creating videos, Stone grew interested in documenting the gripping stories of street kids, and he began his still photography "as a research tool for that."
What began as an aid for another medium has since become Stone's life work of intimate portraits of society's readily forgotten.
Striving to present people at "some sort of core," Stone's work spares viewers nothing of the subject's situation – be it the frantic sadness in awaken!, the addict's unwavering focus in beavis, or the contrast of youthful beauty and yesterday's soil in sadie.
[1] Stone describes his work as photography that's "about increasing the pool of people who are focused on making lives better in their own cities and towns."
[7] I think there's a decided middle spectrum of humanity where circumstance, luck, and small choices conspire to vastly differing fates.