A few weeks ago, I posted a photo of the things I would take if my house were burning and asked the question, What would you take? Since then I have reached out to friends and acquaintances asking them each to submit a photo and list of items. The results and enthusiasm for the concept have been amazing.

To showcase these photos and facilitate the creation of others, I started a website called The Burning House, the-burning-house.com. The site is simple but has the necessary features: big images and a submit function.

Here are two examples of submissions from friends:

Name: Bethany Marcial
Location: New York City
Occupation: Musician
Website: http://www.daughtersofgoodmen.com/

List:

Martin Guitar (this is one is special because my dad bought it for me on bleeker street years ago when I first moved here - most kids' parents were buying them textbooks..this meant much more)
Vintage LL Bean wool hat
Hard Drive of all my photos
Vintage Wrangler Jeans
Necklace of collected charms I always wear including a gold chair and anchor, the state of michigan, two pistols, and three vintage sterling knives
My grandmother's id bracelet from the 30's
A coffee stained, dog eared, underlined copy of G.K. Chesterton's "Whats Wrong With the World"
Turquoise Squash Blossom Necklace
A knife and a tit like crustacean from you (housed usually in my exclusive treefort treasure box)
Minolta Maxxum 5 camera I bought when I was 16, un-fancy but never takes a bad picture
Vintage Blue Stripe Blouse
Worn to death Lace Up Frye Boots I've had nearly 10 years now

and:

Name: Tim Robison

Age: 26

Location: North Carolina

Occupation: Creative Digital Director University of North Carolina at Greensborough

Website: http://thatsjustitphoto.com/

List:

My Grandfather's Camera
My favorite shoes. So comfortable.
My Moleskin notebook. Full of many sketches, ideas, and dates.
My favorite shirt.
A piece of driftwood I found and love.
My laptop. My iMac would be too hard to carry.
Two full hard drives with years worth of work and photos.
My most used kitchen pans. Al Glad Ltd2 fry pan. Le Creuset dutch oven
My keys. They open and start a lot of things.
My pencil bag. Full of my best pens and pencils.
My phone.

It is one part interview, one part OCD photography and one part philosophy of ownership.

For more photos and lists, head over to The Burning House, subscribe to the RSS and most importantly, submit a post. I hope you like it, I'm pretty excited.

Thanks to Bryan Bowie for designing the logo and Jermaine for building the Tumblr.

Here are some more links,
The-Burning-House.com,
Submit a Post (The Burning House),
The Burning House (Picasa),
The Burning House (ART).

If your house was burning, what would you bring with you?

It's a philosophical conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental. You're forced to prioritize and boil down a life of accrued possessions into what you can carry out with you. What you would bring reflects your interests, background and priorities. People's stage in life also dictates their selection. A father of five in his forties would grab very different things than he would have as a bachelor in his twenties. Think of it as a full interview condensed into one question.

Here is a list of what I would bring,

My Granfather's Explorer Scout shirt

Naked and Famous Jeans (three years old)

Zeiss 35mm f/2