Cellular Photography Studio Throughout America

This September, we’re turning our Toyota Tacoma right into a cellular pictures studio, constructing a customized set into the truck mattress, and driving it 7,500 miles throughout the United States, photographing that very same set towards dramatically altering landscapes alongside the way in which.

We’ll be photographing it towards mountains, deserts, forests, salt flats, crimson rocks, coastlines, and every part we discover in between. And as a result of the set is bodily connected to the truck, each {photograph} comes with a wierd set of limitations. If we need to change the composition, we actually have to maneuver the truck. We can’t management the solar, the climate, or what the panorama provides us. Not to say, we additionally should gentle the set itself.

It is basically an experiment in combining two forms of pictures that method image-making very in another way: managed studio pictures and fully uncontrolled panorama pictures.

And unusually sufficient, the entire thought began as a result of we would have liked to maneuver.

We are leaving our hometown of Richmond, Virginia, and shifting throughout the nation to Los Angeles, California. At first, the three,000-ish miles between the 2 felt like nothing greater than a logistical downside. Pack every part up, load the truck, drive west, and get there as rapidly as potential.

But the phrase “it’s about the journey, not the destination” saved getting caught in our heads.

Instead of treating the drive as one thing we would have liked to get by way of, we began questioning what would occur if we made it some of the essential components of the transfer.

Naturally, we determined to show it right into a photography project.

A New Kind of Personal Project

We are photographers and set designers who construct immersive worlds from scratch for each photograph shoot we do utilizing plywood and paint. 

Over the years, private tasks have turn into an enormous a part of how we push ourselves creatively and, actually, have turn into the driving drive behind a number of the work we do.

A couple of years in the past, we created our 100 Set Project, the place we challenged ourselves to construct and {photograph} 100 totally different units in a single yr. More just lately, we created The Attic Series, turning our small attic into a functioning photo studio and constructing 25 fully totally different units inside the very same house.

So we aren’t any strangers to giving ourselves barely sophisticated pictures challenges. But virtually every part we’ve got created has existed inside a managed studio setting.

This time, we needed to take every part we learn about set design and studio pictures and throw it right into a state of affairs the place we will management virtually nothing.

This new undertaking, All About the Journey, is an element studio pictures, half panorama pictures, half set design, half highway journey, and one very massive experiment.

Studio Photography Meets Landscape Photography

This might be the a part of the undertaking that excites us most as a result of we genuinely do not know precisely how it will work. We have a fairly stable thought, however there are simply so many variables at play that creating all of this may contain a number of adjusting in actual time. 

Most of our pictures is extremely managed. We construct the set, select the colours, place the lights, and obsess over pose and framing.

Landscape pictures is sort of the other. You should work with what’s in entrance of you.

You do not get to maneuver the mountain six inches to the left or flip the solar down a number of stops. 

For this undertaking, these two approaches should coexist.

We are designing the set particularly for the truck mattress, which is already proving to be an attention-grabbing problem. It must be visually attention-grabbing sufficient to carry its personal within the pictures, however open sufficient that the panorama stays a significant a part of the picture.

It has to provide us sufficient depth to create an attention-grabbing {photograph} whereas nonetheless being sufficiently small to bodily match contained in the mattress of a Toyota Tacoma.

It additionally must survive 7,500 miles.

And wind.

And doubtlessly rain.

And no matter else we’ve got did not anticipate.

Not to say shade. The shade we select to color the set must complement all kinds of shade palettes seen in all of the landscapes throughout the United States—deserts, mountains, crimson rocks, lakes, forests, and so forth.

The construct begins within the subsequent few days, and determining that stability goes to be one of many largest challenges of your entire undertaking.

The Entire Truck Becomes Part of the Composition

There are some unusual technical limitations that include attaching your photograph set to a automobile.

Normally, if a composition is not fairly working, you progress the digital camera. Or the mannequin. Or the set.

For this undertaking, creating a very totally different body means shifting your entire truck.

That means one thing so simple as altering our angle instantly entails terrain, roads, parking, accessibility, and whether or not we will bodily place a pickup truck the place we would like it.

Lighting goes to be one other main problem.

We can be photographing throughout totally different landscapes, elevations, climate circumstances, and occasions of day. We want the bogus gentle contained in the set to really feel intentional whereas nonetheless permitting the pure panorama behind it to exist.

We additionally do not essentially need this to appear like a studio set that has merely been Photoshopped onto a panorama. The relationship between these two worlds is your entire level.

The lighting resolution that works on a cloudy morning alongside the coast may be fully ineffective in the midst of the desert. We must adapt always.

That uncertainty is a big a part of why we needed to do that.

7,500 Miles of Changing Landscapes

The route has grown considerably since we first got here up with the thought.

What began as a comparatively simple drive from Richmond to Los Angeles in some way changed into a 7,500-mile route throughout the nation.

We are kicking issues off in Richmond earlier than heading north alongside the East Coast by way of Washington, D.C., New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and all the way in which as much as Cape Cod.

From there, we begin heading west.

The purpose is not essentially to {photograph} in each state we drive by way of. We are searching for landscapes that really feel distinctly totally different from each other.

Our route will finally take us by way of Colorado and Utah, then farther south towards the Grand Canyon and the American Southwest.

Once we attain California, the panorama modifications over again. We are planning to {photograph} among the many redwoods earlier than working our manner down the Pacific Coast Highway by way of Big Sur, lastly arriving in Los Angeles.

More than 7,500 miles.

More than 20 days.

Two individuals.

One truck.

One photograph set.

And our golden retriever, Joey.

At least, that is the plan.

Part of the purpose of this undertaking is leaving sufficient room for issues to vary as soon as we are literally on the market.

We may discover a location we by no means knew existed. Weather may fully derail a shoot. Something may break. A location may look nothing like we imagined.

There are so many variables that we merely cannot management from behind a pc display in Virginia.

And that’s sort of the purpose.

Creating a Character Who Doesn’t Quite Belong

I would be the mannequin all through the collection, and David can be photographing me.

Since the set and character will repeat all through the images, we needed the wardrobe to have that very same sense of continuity.

We are working with Wild & Pree to create outfits utilizing the identical print in a number of totally different silhouettes.

The thought is for the character to really feel barely misplaced wherever she goes. A bit like a misplaced traveler who in some way introduced her personal unusual little world along with her.

The silhouettes can change from {photograph} to {photograph}, however the repeated print helps join the photographs visually.

There can also be one thing barely ironic about placing this very styled, colourful character into these huge pure landscapes. 

What Gear Do You Bring When Space Is the Limitation?

Gear is one other attention-grabbing a part of this undertaking as a result of we actually cannot convey very a lot of it.

Between two individuals, a 70-pound canine, every part we want for a cross-country transfer, the set itself, wardrobe, instruments, emergency provides, camera equipment, and lighting equipment, each inch of the truck issues.

There is not any room for the standard “maybe we’ll need this” gear.

Everything has to earn its place.

The undertaking is being offered by Adorama, which helps us put collectively the gear wanted to really pull this off.

The attention-grabbing a part of selecting gear for one thing like this is not essentially determining what gear can be excellent if we had limitless house. It is determining the smallest package that may clear up the biggest variety of issues.

Portability issues. Power issues. Reliability issues. Versatility issues.

And no matter we convey has to outlive being hauled throughout the nation for 3 weeks.

One Big Experiment

There is one thing actually energizing about having a transparent imaginative and prescient with out figuring out precisely how you’ll pull it off.

This complete undertaking began as a result of we needed to drive throughout the nation. The drive was initially only a logistical downside standing between our previous life in Richmond and our new one in Los Angeles.

But we stopped wanting on the drive as one thing we would have liked to get by way of and began it as a artistic alternative.

You actually could make artwork out of virtually something. Sometimes you simply have to take a look at the factor you have been already going to do and ask what else it may turn into.

All About the Journey kicks off in mid-September and can take us greater than 7,500 miles throughout the United States over 20+ days.

We’ll be documenting the construct, the shoots, the errors, the landscapes, and every part that occurs in between.

If you need to expertise the undertaking because it unfolds, you possibly can Join the Journey, our every day publication from the highway the place we’ll be sharing what truly occurred that day: the successes, the failures, the sudden issues, and the tales behind the images. 

Because this time, getting there isn’t the purpose.

The journey is the undertaking.