November 16, 2011

Like live canaries in a mine,  a high concentration of vans in an area suggests good things.  Adventure,  free spirits and exploration.  Parked on side streets, some of these vans lay waiting for a long weekend or a the occasional road trip.  For others,  these streets provide a safe harbor away from the watchful eye of the area’s finest.  They all dream of the open road.

Portland Oregon has a lot of vans.  Over the last few weeks,  I have been stopping and snapping shots of vans that catch my eye.  Here are some of my favorites.

Red stripe.

Syncro love.

Hippies.

Warriors.

Hunters.

Pinstripe.

V-8.

Tiger style.

Business in the front,  party in the back. Mullet.

Syncro love.

There is a lot of green going on here.  Both outside and inside I’d wager.

Fall Colors.

Two tone.

Mobile command station. VanRAD

To celebrate vans like these and the notion that, “Home is where you park it,” I have started a new tumblr called #vanlife. #Vanlife will be composed of my van shots and submissions,  so if you have a van or  see a one or another ship of the open road, take a picture and submit it here.

Here are some more links,

#vanlife (tumblr),

#Vanlife (picasa).

September 1, 2011

A project I worked on based on the Burning House is now up on the The Anthropologist.   For the project, I connected with 20 people from Oregon, Washington, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts and photographed their things.  The project was a blast and I am really proud of how it turned out.  Take a look here.

August 16, 2011

My flight landed at Portland International Airport late Sunday night, a mere 48 hours after my last day of work and, for the first time in five years, I was back in the west with no connection to the Northeast.  With a new-found appreciation for the beauty of my childhood surroundings,  I bounced around the Columbia River Gorge.  For a week, I worked on my Syncro,  caught up with family and made preparations for the first leg of my road trip.

Summer steelhead and my Benchmade Mini Barrage

Looking west down the Gorge.

Full moon.

Just bellow the Bridge of the Gods.

The Columbia River Gorge is just 45 minutes east of Portland.

Salmon lure.

A morning hike on Dog Mountain in preparation for the Goruck Ascent fundraiser for Green Berets. Sponsor me using this form.

The waterfall on the Cape Horn Trail.

My Syncro.

It feels good to be back.

Here are some more links,

The Step (Picasa),

August 14th (Picasa).

July 26, 2011

Walking into people’s homes is a look into their lives.  Over the last few months I have been spending more time visiting people at their homes, photographing the things they would take if their house was burning.  In addition to photographing their things,  I always snap a few shots of their interiors to test the light.  At first,  I didn’t realize that I was taking this very similar photograph over and over again.  I guess people like certain images.  Here are some photos I have shot in the last few months through these open doors.

A look at Jimmy Fountaine’s, a snowboarding buddy turned hotshot fashion photographer, stacks of negatives at his West Village apartment.

The ladder up to the roof at Jen Turner’s, architect and furniture designer, Brooklyn home.

A look into Sandra Wijnberg’s, private equity wizard , Berkshire Mass home.

Having a structured visual format helps me distinguish what’s actually different.  Although these photos are shot in a very similar way, they all feel very distinct.  It happened subconsciously, but I’m going to run with it.  It’s funny how habits arise.

Here are some more links,
July (Picasa),
Help raise money for Veterans (Go Ruck Ascent Challenge)!
I would have gone Ape Shit if I had this  electric paper airplane motor when I was a kid (Amazon).