Josh is my dearest older brother, just 2 years apart. We had a lot of fun growing up together: playing football in the snow, excavating for dinosaur bones, attempting to bake a cake, combating in the world of Mortal Kombat, and on and on. Over the past month, Josh finally set forth a plan that was years in the making. He bravely quit both of his jobs and left the safe haven of Omaha to spend a month hiking in the mountains of Colorado. During this time he also found himself an apartment, a job and towards the tail end of the month moved all of his belongings from Omaha to Denver. I just spoke with him on the phone and he declared Colorado was the place for him, having everything he wants: SPORTS, MOUNTAINS & MUSIC.
INTERVIEW:
I want to give my thanks for agreeing to join me on this project. The first few days were a bit rough with the uncertainty of signal access on your end, but we prevailed and I was able to experience the beautiful wilderness of Colorado while living in my urban environment. Looking back on our collection of photographs, I was hoping we would have more similarities. Knowing you were hiking around Colorado I tried to impose the sculpted nature of Boston into our photo sets with Day 3 & Day 16, but I think you captured more interesting shots of nature. What is your overall analysis of the project?
I loved the idea of this project and how I was going to be involved in it. For me being away from home for weeks, made it even more interesting. I didn’t know where I was going to be, what I would see and encounter. I was a little worried that it would be an issue to do, for the fact I would be in the wilderness with the chance of no cellular signal. But everywhere i went my iPhone worked. Yeah there were times I had to go walk over to this hill, or over to this cliff, or prop my phone up and point it to the skies. The worst spot was at Molas Lake. That’s were it would only work in two spots. One spot was at the lake where Day 16 picture was taken. That was random. I was walking along and my email’s started pouring in. Perfect time for a picture. Second spot was at my campsite on the picnic table. My iPhone had to be propped up on my book at a 45 degree angle pointing towards the southern sky. I had so many options and ideas for this project. There were so many areas, things, and places that I have never seen. At times i felt I needed to switch things up because all that I was sending was pictures of the mountains. To me though, that’s all i wanted to see and for everyone else to see. That’s what drove me to come out to Colorado. After my solo trip throughout Colorado, I went back to Denver to stay with my buddy. I felt that’s where my pictures didn’t capture my everyday life. Towards the end of the project I finally download Instagram. I wish I did that from the get go. The boring simple everyday life pictures turned out more spectacular using a photo app.
DAY SIXTEEN
We did come across with a few similarities, like the fact that we were both moving into new homes. Day 23 captures this nicely, I like to imagine that we were dealing with the stress of moving around the same time. Thoughts on this?
I thought us moving at the same time was pretty funny. My stress level was probably a lot higher than yours. This was my first big move in my life. I have never lived in another state before. Stressing about driving a u-haul across Nebraska while pulling my car was nerve-wracking but it went pretty smoothly. I think at this point in our lives, we finally feel at home and at a place were we want to be for awhile.
Finally, I would like to comment on my favorite photos from the set: Day 5 and Day 24. In Day 5, you captured the most perfect portrait of yourself (that is definitely the face you make in the morning) and overall we both photographed an enclosed space. On the other hand Day 24 captures a restful, quiet moment in my life while capturing the complete opposite as you attended a Big Red football game (plus I like the contrast in vibrant colors versus the infamous ‘sea of red’). What are your favorites from the collection?
Day 1 was for sure one of my favorites. It was the first time I have attempted a mountain summit all by myself. It was the beginning of this project and felt it was the best start to it. Me and the mountain. Day 23 showed how common and similar our day can be compared to how different our lives and days usually are. Day 24 will be one to remember for the rest of my life. That was the best send off present a buddy could give. That’s all Nebraska has to offer. Big Red football. It was amazing to be there at that time. You were relaxing but I was screaming and jumping up and down with joy.
DAY ONE
Any final thoughts?
I would love to do this again. I have so many ideas for this project. I wish I could have used the pictures from my digital camera but I didn’t have my Macbook around at the time. I captured some amazing photos of Colorado. You can tell the difference in both of our iPhone’s. Mine being an older model, didn’t have the sharp, crisp look of what your iPhone could do.
