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The Twins Who Spend Almost Every Day Together

“People at our high school in New Jersey didn’t know what to make of us,” says Lewis Speed. Photo: Bobby Doherty/New York Magazine

Oliver and Lewis Speed, Students

What are you guys up to today?
Lewis: We took the 158 bus from Edgewater, New Jersey, to the Port Authority and have been walking around taking photos. It’s a pretty typical day for us.
Oliver: We graduated from high school in New Jersey last year, but we’re Australian, so we’re waiting to get our papers so we can apply to college there.
Lewis: People at our high school in New Jersey didn’t know what to make of us; they called me Jesus, and they called Oliver Jesús. They would put halos over our heads on Snapchat.

Are you guys very twinny twins?
Oliver: Well, we’ve spent almost every day together for the past 20 years.
Lewis: People say we’re telepathic; like, in U.S.-history class, on every test, we got the exact same questions wrong, and our teacher thought we were cheating, so we were put on opposite sides of the room — but it kept happening.
Oliver: We might not go to the same college.
Lewis: Yeah, it’s not going to be like Step Brothers, where we are grown up and sleeping in bunk beds. We have to end it sometime.

Lightning Round
Type of twins
: Fraternal.
Cameras: Oliver: Pentax 67. “Taking pictures is a growing hobby for us.” Lewis: Hasselblad 500C and a Canon AE-1.
Favorite TV shows: Oliver: Mr. Robot. Lewis: Parks and Recreation and Seinfeld.
Shampoo: Oliver: “What’s the stuff in the black bottle?” Lewis: “Tresemmé. Our mom buys it for us.” 

*This article appears in the May 30, 2016 issue of New York Magazine.