Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Sticky Mountain Time

I spent the month of August living off the grid on my friends land. I've been there a few times before, some of you may of seen the photos of their beautiful hand built homes nestled into the mountains of North Carolina. This trip was different because I would be documenting the End of the World's Fair. Intended to be a family reunion of sorts the fair hosted a smattering of ceremonies, music, art, installation and performance. A month long wedding with no actual marriage. A reason to celebrate our friends that have become family in a place with no distraction.

Only a handful of us stayed the entire time. It's difficult to say exactally how many people came and went between August's two full moon's. I think it's safe to say around 200 friends came and stayed for various amounts of time during the month. Like myself people traveled far to spend time here. They came from all coasts via car, plane and even on foot hiking in from the Appalachian trail. The event happened with no online promotion. Invites were sent out via snail mail, flyers posted in friends homes and news traveled by word of mouth. Planning actually began years ago.

I could say a lot about what I learned during this experience. It was a personal challenge for me to live without my phone, no internet and basically surrender to the elements. Bottom line the world didn't stop and I grew stronger. I'm totally happy to answer any questions you may have but for now I'll let the photos speak for themselves. I shot over 3,000 images. I selected 290 to publish online for public viewing.

In no linear order of occurrence here are some selections for you to start with:

End of the World's Fair

End of the World's Fair

End of the World's Fair

End of the World's Fair


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End of the World's Fair
My shack where I stayed my 33 days in the mountains.

We made amazing things happen during this month. I think the most important for me was connecting with one another face to face and remembering what we are capable of creating. Janet said it would take an anarchist miracle to pull it off. You ask and you shall receive.

Full photo set here.

If you are interested, photos from my past visits to this land that focus more on the structures that have been built can be found here & here

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Family Band: Moonbeams

Late June & early July at this point seem like years ago. But it was then that over two very full days in Milwaukee WI with the usual crew of collaborators including director Sam Macon and cinematographer Travis Auclair I was lucky enough do production design on a video for our friends Kim Krans & Jonny Ollisn who make up Family Band. Here are a smattering of iphone pictures from the shoot. Doing production design for projects like this with friends really is a dream job.

Keep an eye out later this week for my photos from my trip to the Smokey Mountains for all of August documenting the End of the Worlds Fair, I'm about half way through sifting through over 3500 stills that barley captured the magic there.

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills

Family Band: Moonbeams Video Production Stills



Read an interview with Kim & Jonny about the skeleton romance story unfolding here.

More production stills here.