I’ve been searching for an original way to say this, but the basic concept is this: I’m making a movie!
ed note: Thanks to all our many backers for a successful campaign!
The film is called 72 Hours: A Brooklyn Love Story? In it, over the course of one weekend, we see love, love lost, and something gained in its place. It’ll be great. I promise.
The Sasquatch Festival is a three-day explosion of music and bodies in one of the most picturesque concert venues imaginable, the Gorge Amphitheater in eastern Washington. Five stages of madness during the days, and 50,000+ attendees camping on the attached lands at night. Our team was hired by Skype to shoot it, and I managed to grab these stills in the flow.
My favorite sets were probably Chance the Rapper, Tycho, and Rodriguez, but I missed many more than I saw, and there’s no substitute for seeing creative heroes like Outkast and Major Lazer in full bloom. Rodriguez used a pause between songs to say, “we have to stop violence against women.” His voice was strong throughout the show, and I wondered how it felt to be playing such a large venue just a week after the death of the young filmmaker who’d reintroduced him to the world.
In addition to five days camping in an RV — and waking up to 4am sound checks — there was the sheer exhaustion of shooting for hours on end, carrying more equipment than usual, and interacting with hundreds of less-than-sober people daily.
There were quiet moments too, a few of them anyway. I hope to go back. §
Amish boys watching the fire department after a car accident in Paradise, PA. I took a couple of “real” pictures of this scene, but it came out so much better on the phone/Instagram.
I recently worked on a short documentary about Rebuild By Design, an architecture competition created by a Presidential task force in response to Hurricane Sandy.
Visually, we were tasked with making a film about hurricane season during the winter months. Though some warm weather shots did make it into the cut, it was a small coup to see such a strong amount of activity on the ocean and rivers during cold weather.
It’s no secret that we repeat vantage points around here. It just happens to be a good vantage point. Shooting this, I was reminded of an earlier post:
There’s a point at which the natural light has faded such that artificial light is just as bright. It is a fertile moment for photography.
That post was nearly six years ago (?!?). And I’ve only grown as a writer and photographer since. A heartfelt thanks to anyone who’s stopped by in the intervening time. We’re just getting started.
