in rhythm with the sun
For 5-months starting in July 2023, I traveled the Western United States visiting Alaska, Washington, California, Utah, and Arizona. I lived and camped out of a 2018 Ford Escape with an awning, solar panel, battery bank, and homemade bed setup. My daily driver-turned-adventure vehicle allowed me to travel cheaply and freely across the country. It wasn’t the world's most comfortable set-up and most certainly wasn’t the most glamorous but it got the job done. It allowed me to visit places I only dreamed of stepping foot in.
My adventure started with a three-day drive across the country to Washington where I spent a week camping, hiking, and photographing before getting on a ferry to Alaska. I spent 8-weeks in Alaska, fulfilling a lifelong dream of visiting the state. I experienced many once-in-a-lifetime moments that to this day I still have a hard time describing. Once autumn arrived and winter began knocking on Alaska’s door, I took a return trip on the ferry back to Washington where I spent another week traveling in its alpine regions. From there I traveled the length of California visiting many bucket-list locations including the Redwoods, Yosemite National Park, and the Alabama Hills. Afterward, I zig-zagged my way over to Utah where I experienced autumn in the desert. I spent many weeks photographing some of Utah’s most iconic locations, including Canyonlands, Capital Reef, and Zion National Parks. Continuing in the desert, I traveled south into Arizona where I meandered around several locations including Grand Canyon National Park and Sedona. Nearing the end of my journey I back-tracked into California to spend 10 days camping and photographing in Death Valley National Park. Once winter began reaching the desert, I set course back toward Michigan, arriving home in early December.
In hindsight I wasn’t gone from home long, but while on the trip it felt like I was gone for a lifetime. Hours felt like days, days felt like weeks, and weeks felt like months. Many of those days were spent hiking and photographing in the myriad of beautiful locations I was in. Quite a few of those days were spent relaxing in a quiet spot reading a good book. Most of those days were spent looking for a good spot to set up my solar panel to charge my battery bank. What each day had in common was my reliance on the Sun. The Sun dictated almost every decision I made throughout the day. It decided whether or not I went photographing, it decided if I could relax outside or had to shelter in my car, and most importantly decided if I could charge my battery bank with my solar panel. My day-to-day was in the hands of the Sun. This may sound like the Sun controlled my time spent on this trip, but in reality, it simplified how I lived my life. I lived by the patterns of the Sun, walking daily in its footsteps. By the time my trip came to an end, I can safely say I was in rhythm with the Sun.
I have now been home from this journey for almost 4-months, close to as long as I was gone and I’m excited to finally begin releasing my photographs. I set out on this trip with no true photographic goals, I didn’t want to set any expectations for my photographs. My only hope is these images convey the emotions I felt while capturing them. I look back on these photographs now and I’m in awe that less than a year ago I was standing in those locations, taking in the sights and sounds of world-class landscapes. Viewing these photographs reminds me of how lucky I am and makes me very thankful for the memories I got to make. I’m incredibly grateful to my family and friends who supported me during this journey, without their support this trip may never have happened.
I will now leave you with the following three installments of this photographic project. These three installments will be released over a 4-5 month period starting with my photographs from Alaska. Each installment will be accompanied by an online gallery and a PDF eBook, and for the best viewing experience, I recommend viewing on either a laptop or desktop computer. The eBooks include additional writings and behind-the-scenes photographs from the trip and are the viewing methods that I suggest. Thank you for taking the time to view my photographs. I’m very grateful for your interest in my work from a truly once-in-a-lifetime trip.
