The Burning House Book

I started the Burning House project in late April of 2011.  At the time,  I was living and working in New York City.  The idea quickly grew from a day dream on a subway ride home from a party to a tumblr site a few weeks later.  The blog grew quickly and a month later,  I signed a contract with !t Books to turn the idea into a book and an online series with Anthropologie.  In August of 2011, I took this money,  I bought a van, put in my notice in at Polo and left New York to work on the project from the road.

As much as being something nice to look at, my hope for the Burning House Project, and the book in particular, is to prompt a discussion on materialism.  For the next four months,  I traversed the western US looking for people that wouldn't normally see the Tumblr.  I talked to a hermit in southern Colorado, a retired postal worker on the central coast of California and a weed trimmer in Humboldt County.  Heading out on the road and meeting people to photograph let me focus on expanding the point of view represented in the book as well as get back to surfing and camping. With a whirlwind finish that included five days straight at a coffee shop in Hood River Oregon,  I turned in the manuscript on time in the middle of November.

The book came out on July 10th, or a 14 months to the day after the tumblr launched.  I feel incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to work on this project and am thrilled with people's response. The Burning House is available at a brick and mortar stores like Boarders, Urban Outfitters and Powells books in portland and online on Amazon.  Thank you for all of your support.

Here are some more links,

The Burning House (ART). The Burning House (tumblr), The Burning house (Amazon).