Home-Cooked Meal, #17 & #18

The Beasock Family, October 20/29, 2007, Boonville, NY

Boonville, day 90

Seven days ago I was feeling good. Seven days later, not so good. Nothing significant has happened between now and then. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster. Up, down, up, down, sideways, repeat. I'm writing a lot. It should be interesting to read this stuff in five years. My mind is racing. The work is suffering. I want to go home. Challenges suck.

I feel great again!

...

Boonville, day 83

Eighty-three days...wow.

I have fallen. I have picked myself up. I have grown. New friends. New work. New ideas.

The journey has been amazing. The work is forming it's own ideas. A few key things have popped up and sparked my interest and past memories. I am running with these three or four recurring themes.

The journey is almost half-way there. I'm just getting into it and it is starting to really feel good.

Thank you to all I have met along the way, and to my friends and family for truly believing in me and the project.

Walden Into The Wild

Chris McCandless, self-portrait, July/August, 1992

Last week my mother sent me Jon Krakauer's Into The Wild. She said it reminded her of me and this project. A stretch, but a nice comment nonetheless. I don't think I have ever finished a book so quick in my life. It touched me. I think I was at the perfect point in my life, and in this journey, to have read that book. Thanks Moms.

Rather then love, then money, than fame, give me truth. I sat at a table where were rich food and wine in abundance, an obsequious attendance, but sincerity and truth were not; and I went away hungry from the inhospitable board. The hospitality was as cold as the ices.

Henry David Thoreau,
Walden, Or life in the Woods
Passage highlighted in one of the books found with Chris McCandless's remains. At the top of the page the word "TRUTH" had been written in large block letters in McCandless's Hand.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary.

Henry David Thoreau,
Walden
Passage highlighted in the copy of Walden I'm traveling with. Highlighted at some point in the past by my girlfriend; Laura.

Story of an artist, Daniel Johnston

Story Of An Artist, Daniel Johnston

This song found its way into a mix a friend made me for my travels. I've heard it in the past, but it resonates with me now more then ever. I cannot stop listening to it.

The video is very distracting. HERE is a link to just the song, if you prefer.

Greetings from New York!

Raccoon, Greenwood Avenue & Prospect Park SW, Brooklyn, NY

It's great to be home! The last time I was here was about forty-five days ago. I love it. But I have gotten these weird and sudden urges, or ticks. The closest thing I think they resemble is guilt mixed with a few shots of self-doubt. I have learned my lessons in the past and I am giving myself breaks now and then. But the guilt still rears its ugly head, especially now that I'm on "vacation" for a few days. I'm learning to ignore it, just like all my other feelings.


View from Daniel and Dana's wedding, Battery Park, New York, NY

Yesterday, Laura and I attended her brother's wedding. It was in Battery Park City, and it was a brunch wedding. There is nothing like drinking at 11am and not feeling bad about it. It was a blast. It couldn't have been a better day: The sun was out, puffy clouds were strolling by, happy people were running around Battery Park, and I was drunk by 1pm; A good day.



I learned to truly love photography when I was photographing skateboarders and rollerbladers in High School. So I had to stop when I spotted a few skater kids while Laura and I were walking in the Park.



A few minutes later, a Park Patrolmen started in on the situation, so I photographed him as well. He didn't like that and made a few smart remarks in my direction. So what did I do? Any one of my friends or family could finish this story and tell you that I confronted him and explained that I was legally in my right to take that photo, and it is not appropriate for someone of his authority to speak to me that way, or to bug these kids. Except it didn't really work out all that well. I walked away as soon as I realized I was three inches from his face and we were yelling at each other. Not really cool. Fun day though!

Boonville vs Reality

This project started out as a document of small-town America. I realized, not so quickly, that my goal was impossible. I could not truly document these six different Boonvilles, not in the way I thought I wanted to. It's obvious, now that I think about it, but it was only two months ago that I was struggling to make this project into something that a photograph could never represent: A real moment. A true document.


Geese flying South (maybe South-West), Boonville, New York, 2007

Because of my presence, regardless of the situation, I could never truly capture a scene as it was. Yes, I am creating a document, but it is flawed, mostly by that fact that I am there with a specific intention, to create something, therefore manipulating something. But there is more to it: The photograph itself is only an object; It is an object viewed and judged differently every time it is seen, therefore it separates itself farther from reality.

I first started thinking about Photography vs Reality when I read this passage in Camera Lucida, by Roland Barthe:

"Now, once I feel myself observed by the lens, everything changes: I constitute myself in the process of ' posing,' I instantaneously make another body for myself, I transform myself in advance into an image."

Photographer and subject, photographed by a subject.

What does all this mean? Nothing, really. It just means that my thinking has changed. There has always been a level of fiction involved in my vision for the work (the idea is to take selected images from each town and juxtapose them together, creating a fictional "Boonville"), but it has always been based on real people, real stories and real moments.

After lots of discussions and thought, I realized that the journey to Boonville is the story, not Boonville itself. How could it be? I am manipulating every place I walk into; I'm causing a ripple in the normality of a situation: I'm on the cover of the papers, I'm hanging out at parties (above), etc.; The scene is automatically flawed. By excepting this, I am starting to create a document that represent something real: This journey.

The Boonville Herald

I have never been on the front of anything in my life! This is the fourth feature article that has been written about me and the project, and I've only been to three towns! Weird, bizarre, awesome and more awesome.

No link available to this one. Download the PDF HERE.

Home-Cooked Meal, #8-#16

Wally Low, October 3-7, 2007, Boonville, New York

Village Idiot

Kristina and I, Pie-eating-contest winners, 10/06/07, B'ville, NY
(yellow was a coincidence, and may be the secret weapon.)

Yesterday was the Village of Boonville's Fall-Arts Festival. I accepted an invitation to be in the no-hands pie-eating contest (not to be confused with the Boonville, MO pizza-eating contest).

I won! Well, it was a draw. Kristina was the other lucky winner. See a fantastic picture of her here. I think she got more on her face and on her shirt then in her mouth. But I wasn't the judge.

Next week, along with a feature article in the Boonville Herald about the project, I could be featured as the Village idiot, covered in pie of course.

Boonville, New York, Day 2

Mr. low's Guest Bedroom, Boonville, New York, From Left to Right:
The New Testament, Slapstick, Mistral's Daughter,
The Case of the Daring Divorce, You are too Much Charlie Brown,
Batman, Moby Dick.

I am currently staying with Wally Low. Wally is in his 80's but acts like he's 30. He has already made me four home-cooked meals, he drove me all over town yesterday and last night he made me one of the finest Manhattans I have ever tasted. After Wally's "Sparkln' " Manhattan, we capped the night off with a New York made Indian Pale Ale. Wally is great and his house, built in 1906-ish, is stunning. His living room is filled with paintings, old photos and tons of book about or referencing Boonville; All this is right next to his Mel Brooks DVD collection!

The Ripple, again!

Jonathan David Phillips, my buddy (and associate editor) at the Yadkin Ripple, Boonville, North Carolina's local paper, just can't get enough of me. Read tomorrow's front-page article titled: Goodbye with a smile: Boonville says goodbye to New York photographer...for now.

Greetings from Boonville, New York!

Boonville, NY, circa 1911 (click it!)

The columned structure to the left is the Hulbert House, built circa 1812. Today, inside the Hulbert House, I spoke about the project during the Town's Chamber of Commerce meeting. Business included: Me, The Fall-Arts Festival and advanced planning for the Christmas decor in the town square. They bring in six real-live reindeer and a real-live Santa during the holiday season! For about four weeks the Village of Boonville is full of Rockwell-like cheer. They also have a Snow Festival, complete with a snow parade and fireworks. Sounds like fun!

Home-Cooked Meal, #7

The Shore Family, Boonville, NC, September 29, 2007

I am currently in PA. I leave for B'ville, NY in a few minutes. I am introducing myself and the project at the Town's Chamber of Commerce meeting, tomorrow, at 8:30am. last week I called in to Boonville, New York's local radio station and did a quick interview. It was running this past week and I have gotten more then a handful of calls and emails from people offering support. I got a call from a husband and wife with 3 kids, a B&B owner, a single guy living just out of town and a few others, all offering up free places to stay.

Wow!
Boonville, New York: "Opening doors to vagabonds everywhere. Just come on in!" I love it.

I'm looking forward to getting back up to NY! This is where it all started, almost four years ago. It will be great to see how things have, or have not, changed. I can't wait...