The Impossible Project X Urban Outfitters X Yours Truly

A few months ago,  Urban Outfitters and The Impossible Project got in touch with me about being part of a show in their NYC Space.  As a child of the digital generation, especially with regards to photography, I have grown accustom to bracketing shots and filling up a few 16 gig flash cards on an outing.   I'm a firm believer in doing new things outside of one's habits, so I took them up on their offer. Equipped with a few hundred exposures of their 600 film and a few cameras, I documented two months on the road.   Shooting with film forced me to slow down and consider each shot more.  I really enjoyed it.  Here are a handful of the shots I picked for the show.

Morning sesh in Malibu, CA.

OG Landcruiser, Eastern Columbia River Gorge, WA.

Barbed Wire.

Rear view mirror.

Snow in Underwood, WA.

The Kern River, CA.

Tim reading in the back of the Syncro.

 #vanlife.

Shotgun in L.A.

The Klickitat River, Washington.

Wetsuits hanging to dry in Ventura, CA.

Deer.

A toilet cleaner, as John calls it, in L.A.

The show will be at The Impossible Project Space, 425 Broadway 5th Floor New York New York 10013, from December 15 to January 11, with an opening reception this Thursday.  I won't be making the schlep back to New York for it, but if you're in the area, stop by and have a look.  I'm really pumped to be a part of it.

Here are some more links, Impossible Project X Urban Outfitters,

A Restless Transplant (Facebook).

It starts with a notion..

The idea to leave my corporate design job in Manhattan and travel around taking photos and enjoying the outdoors crept into my presleep thoughts sometime in the in early spring.  Like a virus, this notion spread from daydreams to late night conversations with a few close friends.  I missed the outdoors and a sense of exploration.  Leaving a comfortable life in search of something different seemed crazy, but the more I thought it the more I realized it was the right decision.

At first, it seemed like a distant dream, years off perhaps.  Much to my surprise, steps started falling into place.  I signed a book deal with !t Books (a department of Harper Collins) for the Burning House and shot a commissioned project with The Anthropologist. These projects gave me both the money to finance my trip and the purpose to stay productive while traveling.   Eager to put my money where my mouth is, I bought a VW Syncro and made preparations.  LL Bean agreed to outfit me with the necessary camping and fly fishing equipment and I was off running.

"You're going to do what?  Have you thought this through?  What about your job?"

Next came a series of conversations with friends, family and my coworkers.  The responses were polarized, but by this point, my mind was made up.  If I didn't take a leap like this now, I probably never would.

"I want to see how far down the hole the rabbit goes."

In July, I  started condensing my things down. I gave bags of clothes to my cleaning lady to send back to her family in Trinidad and Tobago, sold odds and ends on eBay and gave away the rest to friends.  It was easier than I thought and more liberating than I could have imagined.

As the dust settled, I packed my possessions into a handful of dry bags and my GR1 and wrapped up my surfboard in preparation of  catching a a one wa,y flight back to Portland Oregon this Sunday.  From there, I will pick up my Syncro, hit the road and open a new chapter of my life.

Here are some more links,

All I Need Is (Picasa),

These Photos by Jon Levitt inspired me a lot.

Through Doors

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).

Rooftop

"The steak is a little toasted, but the pork loin should be fine," I explained, manning the spatula in one hand and a Porkslap in the other.

"Yah, we should have put the all the new coals on one side and left the other side open," the grilling expert announced. Sporting a Slayer T-shirt, LA Dodgers hat, a mustache reminiscent American West and smelling like a Grateful Dead show, he gingerly prodded the steak with his index finger. "How long ago did you flip them?"

Acknowledging my inferior understanding of cooking steaks, I relinquished the spatula, "Maybe a minute or two ago."

"I'm Foster, by the way," I interjected, extending my hand around the grill.

"Craig."

Knowing only two people at a packed rooftop party in south Williamsburg, I had smelled an uncharacteristic smoke pluming from the holes of a Weber and took point on the grill. Lightly burning my fingers on the handle of the grill, I quickly flipped the steak and pork loin. With a spatula in hand, I watched the colors change on the Manhattan skyline.

Sunset.

Lounging.

The Williamsburg Bridge.

Fixings.

My conversation continued with Craig for 20 minutes or so. Despite his quintessential Williamsburg appearance, Craig was a managing director at a five-billion dollar convertible arbitrage (google it) hedge fund. He also was an Economics and Computer Science double major. Some people you only meet in New York City.

Here are some more links,

A Restless Transplant (Facebook),

Calm Before the Storm (Picasa).