May 27, 2008

Our plan was to leave Savannah in the early morning hours but due to the new tires needing to be put on, we are not able to leave until after 1:30PM or so.

We arrive in Cary around 8PM and Shannon Johnstone, our next photographer, is having a birthday party for her significant other, Anthony. Veggies, fruits, and beers are shared and a good, relaxing time is had by all. We also have the pleasure of meeting Lia Newman, Director of Programs and Exhibitions at the Artspace Visual Art Center in Raleigh, North Carolina.

May 26, 2008

We depart Tallahassee around morning time (7AM) and drive on I-10 East into the sunrise. The day is a beautiful one; blue skies, warm temps, welcoming air; a feeling of summer.

Matthew Gamber is the photographer we’re visiting this afternoon. He speaks well about his work and is an all-around good guy.

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After our interview, Matthew returns to where he teaches, the Savannah College of Art and Design, for his class’s final critique.

We realize that there is a small but unsafe tear and bubble in the right passenger-side tire of Ethan’s car. We stop at a Firestone Tire and they tell us the tire needs to be replaced but that they do not have the specific tire, a 195 – 50 – 16, in stock.

Not able to wait a day or two for the tires to come in, we call around town and thankfully Tires Plus has 4 of the specific tires in their warehouse that can be put on tomorrow morning.

We head back to SCAD after Matthew’s critique finishes and he gives us a tour of the college’s modern facilities.

We catch up in the evening with two good friends, Joos and Hayley, who Ethan and I met at the Maine Media Workshops. Joos is finishing his MFA thesis at SCAD and Hayley is finishing her BFA. We eat pizza, laugh a whole lot, talk about our trip and Joos’ epic t-shirts, and sleep at their amazingly-styled apartment. Thanks for having us, guys.

May 25, 2008

We wake up around 9AM and pile into the car for the 6 or so hour drive to Tallahassee to meet our next photographer, John Mann.

Before arriving at John’s house, we see a motorcyclist riding with his dog in his lap while smoking a cigarette.

Around 4PM we arrive at John’s home and both he and his wife, Christina, are warm and welcoming.

John, Ethan, Potato Pancake (dog), and I head out for a walk at a local wilderness area where pine trees are being studying, specifically to find out how often they can be harvested, and how often they need to be burned in order to replenish the soil. It’s interesting. As an Eagle Scout and an avid outdoor lover, I have a great appreciation and interest for everything nature-related.

7PM rolls around and Christina presents us with a terrific, homemade dinner: slow-cooked pork with tortillas, rice, salsa, a mix of corn and veggies, and a phenomenal dessert whose name I am forgetting. A little help, John or Christina?

We speak with John about his work and like all the photographers we have visited thus far, he is well spoken and undeniably passionate about his work and the photographic medium.

Thank you John, Christina, and Pancake Potato for having us in your home and a very enjoyable visit.

May 24, 2008

We spend one more day in New Orleans and take a swamp tour of the New Orleans Bayou. I find the calling I have been searching for: professional alligator photographer.

And then we hit the Bayou Boogaloo for round two.

And then we attend an African American art opening. The paintings are phenomenal and a DJ spins hip hop in the back room. Dig.

May 23, 2008

The day’s activities include: various neighborhoods, pralines, beignets, sausage and alligator cheese cake, the Bayou Boogaloo, the Mississippi Rover, trolley trains, Jackson Park, and an amazing jazz benefit show.

Mississippi River

Fountain

beignet before

beignet after

Ethan and Andrea, trolley

May 22, 2008

Campsite without the tent; dock in the background.

Ethan with the car with the tent inside; dock not in background.

Sloppy photography while driving.

New Orleans welcomes us with Andrea, Ethan’s friend, an instrumental band at the Maple Leaf Bar, and good times all around.

May 21, 2008

We say goodbye to the Econolodge in San Antonio and make our way to Louisiana. I realize that bathroom poet’s live in Louisiana.

Ethan does the day’s driving and I read Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Letters to a Young Poet”. It is quite good and I recommend it to really anyone out there.

“And to be among conditions that work us, that set us before big natural things from time to time, is all we need.”

“I feel as though I had been sleeping for years or had been lying in the lowest hold of a ship that, loaded with heavy things, sailed through strange distances– — Oh to climb up on deck once more and feel the winds and the birds, and to see how the great, great nights come with their gleaming stars…”

We drive for a short while and our Garmin GPS takes us down a road with a bridge that is no longer accessible. The homes, light, grasses, and sky that are presented before us are quite beautiful.

We arrive at our campground in St. Martinsville and the humidity in unbelievable; it feels like the rain forests of Costa Rica. Without moving, one’s cotton shirt becomes soaked in sweat.

We make a pasta dinner, take cold showers, and sleep atop our Thermarest sleeping pads wearing only our boxers.

May 20, 2008

Good morning.

We head to Alejandro’s parents restaurant and meet his father who reminds me much of my father: warm, kind, funny, talkative; a true people person.

We have a traditional Mexican breakfast: scrambled eggs mixed with meat, onion, and pepper, wrapped in flour torillas with special, homemade salsa. Unbelievably delicious. We drink homemade fruit smoothies and I cannot begin to describe how good they are. A big thank you to Mr. Cartegana and his great staff!

We drive around the locations where Alejandro has been making his Lost Rivers and Topografia work, and then have a more formal but laid back interview at Fototeca, where Alejandro works. Both make for a winning combination and we look forward to presenting this content in multimedia form later this summer.

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In the afternoon we see more of Monterrey and it’s landscape.

We eat at a favorite restaurant of Alejandro’s and Chrissie’s, El Torito (The Little Bull). We order Tecate beers and a plate of meat, onion, pepper, salsa, and flour tortillas. Again, the food is remarkable and we eat until we simply can eat no more!

In the evening, we drive to El Mirador, a large hilltop in Monterrey where young people come to make out while American music plays through green speakers. It is quite a spektacle. We make portraits of Alejandro and see another epic sunset. Alejandro says we are good luck because today is one of the best cloud days of the year.

We pick up Chrissie and head for helado (ice cream). The amounts are plentiful and we cannot finish it all!

Our bus was scheduled to leave at 10:30PM and arrive in San Antonio at 4:30AM, but in reality does not leave until 11:15PM and does not arrive until 6:30AM. Make sure to allow an hour or two leeway if you ever head South of the border on a bus.

Ethan and I check into an Econolodge at 6:45AM and sleep for 3 hours until checkout at 11AM.

Alejandro, Crissie, and the Cartegenas: thank you for everything!

note: Days 14, 15, 16, and 17 are sparse in details because I am writing them days after they have occurred and on less than 2 hours of sleep while riding a bus from San Antonio, Texas to Monterrey, Mexico.

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May 18 and 19, 2008

Ethan and I wake up around 9AM and already Lynn is buzzing about preparing a feast: pancakes, waffles, sausage, bacon, potatoes, and orange juice. Sean wakes up a short while later and tackles making the pancakes in various shapes such as airplanes and teradactles.

We eat, digest, lounge, laugh, talk about the events of the previous evening, and pack up to hit the road. Lynn makes a color polaroid of us that perhaps it will be on her Flick (please?). We say our goodbyes and thank everyone for being superb hosts. We had only planned to stay in San Diego 1 night but it was so great we had to stay 2.

We depart San Diego around noon and drive for 21 hours straight. Yes, 21 hours straight with only stops for gas, once to eat dinner, and once to eat a much needed breakfast that would end up destroying our stomachs.

Ethan and I take turns throughout the 1,300 plus mile journey. I drive the first leg of the trip, he drives the second leg, and we alternate the last 2 hours every 30 minutes due to exhaustion. During the night Ethan manages to avoid hitting what is either a bobcat or a coyote. Lil Jon and the East Side Boyz, and Cut Copy give us much needed energy during the final 2 hours of driving.

We arrive in San Antonio and make our way to the Greyhound station to purchase bus tickets for Monterrey, Mexico. With a couple of hours to spend before our 2:05PM departure, we walk around the downtown river front, see the Alamo, drink iced teas, bootleg wireless, and grab a sandwich at Subway.

Behind schedule, our bus finally begins to board at 2:50PM and it is a complete mess. We are the last two people allowed on board before the bus closes it’s doors.

Ethan sits next to a woman wearing a black blouse, sea blue skirt, and small, thick hoop earings. Her skin is fair, smooth, and her hair tones of gray. She looks to be in her early 50s. I sit next to an older woman, perhaps in her late 60s. She wears a floral skirt with dark greens and desert oranges, a shamrock milkshake green blouse, and the viens on her hands rise and fall like small, reversed canyons. She takes off her patchwork jacket. “Caliente?” I ask. “Si… mucho,” she responds with a smile.

We arrive in Monterrey around 11PM, meet Alejandro and his wife, Chrissie, make our way back to her parents home in the mountainside 45 minutes away. It is simply beautiful. They give us a warm welcome, we chat on top of the roof about our lives and photography, and the city of Monterrey illuminates the sky in the distance.

May 17, 2008

We wake up, eat breakfast at a local restaurant a short ways down the street, come back to the apartment, and then make our way down to a beach where months earlier there was a fatal great white shark attack.

Later in the day we eat meat, fish, and shrimp tacos that are unbelievable. In the evening we head to a hip hop show where Blackalicious and Pigeon John produce an experience of epic proportions. This was also caused by copious amounts of alcohol being graciously fed to us by Sean and Tom.