Unwritten Notes

Unwritten Notes, Kelso Dunes

Kelso Dunes is one of those places in California in the middle of nowhere that only really shows up on a map if you know where to look. It’s desolate and remote and absolutely stunning, a 45 square mile patch of sand 100 miles East of Barstow in the Mojave Desert surrounded by what appears to be endless, empty, sun-baked country.

Kelso Sand Dunes, the Mojave Desert, California.

No. #0510_14A - Kelso Sand Dunes, California. January of 2017.

It became overwhelmingly apparent that afternoon that I’d become a City boy and there was no going back, having made the two and a half hour drive from Palm Springs into the deep desert with little more than a single bottle of water serving two adults (and a small dog), though miraculously I was traveling with three cameras and at least fifteen rolls of film, just in case.

Anyway, we made out in one piece. No sand worms to speak of.

Excerpts from the series “Unwritten Notes” - Photographs Made Elsewhere.

Comprised of work spanning nearly 15 years, the series is largely autobiographical and draws entirely from images made on the road, away from home...

Prints available upon request.

Unwritten Notes, Lake Tahoe

I don’t ski, never really did, for a whole slew of reasons, but especially now, seeing as I have become quite brittle as I’ve gotten older. I’m more of a “ski-lodge” enthusiast, things involving fireplaces and bourbon and not snow I must interact with at high rates of speed. Either way, we ended up in Tahoe in February at what was billed as a cozy log cabin in the woods.

No. #0433_06A - Lake Tahoe, California. February of 2016.

What we found upon arrival was in fact a two room mobile home, with a fake log cabin facade, in a trailer park, surrounded by other fake log cabin mobile homes, in what I can only assume was someones idea of a practical joke. The queen size bed could only be exited from the end on the left side, which should paint a picture of the square footage we were dealing with. There were some trees, not exactly what I’d call a woods. False advertising would be an understatement.

No. #0432_15A - Fallen Leaf Lake, California. February of 2016.

We had a fine time, accommodations not withstanding, we took some long lovely walks, Tahoe is quite beautiful. We found a casino across the border in Reno with a penthouse bar that made the entire excursion much more bearable. No fireplace, but plenty of bourbon, and no snow to interact with. Don’t think I’ve been back to Tahoe since.

Excerpts from the series “Unwritten Notes” - Photographs Made Elsewhere.

Comprised of work spanning nearly 15 years, the series is largely autobiographical and draws entirely from images made on the road, away from home...

Prints available upon request.

Unwritten Notes, Islamorada

I found myself in South-West Florida in January and somehow convinced my step-father to let my wife and I take his Corvette down to the Florida Keys for a long weekend. It was the first but not the last time I’ve been down to the Keys. I should’ve learned my lesson.

No. #0420_18A - Islamorada, Florida Keys. January of 2016.

We stayed at a place lovingly referred to as the Pines and Palms Resort. It was essentially a glorified motor lodge with no pines and very few palms and could hardly be considered a resort. It did have a pool and a bar and a guy with a gray pony tail playing Jimmy Buffett and Grateful Dead covers on an acoustic guitar. In fact every place we went seemed to employ the same leftover deadhead with a guitar playing cover tunes, like they were part of some local leftover union of musicians.

No. #0422_26A - Hotel. Islamorada, Florida Keys. January of 2016.

The Keys are beautiful, but when you start looking closer it get’s pretty weathered and a little grim, a theme park that never really caught on, then ran out of money, and the employees all decided to hang on until someone shuts the power off, and that was back in 1968.

Let’s be honest, Florida is weird.

Excerpts from the series “Unwritten Notes” - Photographs Made Elsewhere.

Comprised of work spanning nearly 15 years, the series is largely autobiographical and draws entirely from images made on the road, away from home...

Prints available upon request.

Unwritten Notes, Big Sur

We got married on a Friday in October at City Hall in San Francisco. In November we drove South down the coast to Big Sur during what I can only describe as a torrential rain storm that should have convinced us to stay home. Alas, we did not.

No. 0325_07A Big Sur, California. November of 2014.

We turned off Highway 1 onto what was less of a road and more of a graded dirt path leading up the hill that was in the process of converting itself into a small river. Piloting a 2 wheel drive hybrid sedan up said dirt-river-path was not ideal, to say the least. We almost turned back several times and in hindsight that would have probably been the logical thing to do but we pushed on and made it the 2 miles up the dirt-river-path and just like that the rain stopped and the storm blew itself out.

No. 0325_08A Big Sur, California. November of 2014.

It was a short honeymoon. We spent a long weekend in a little cottage with a little kitchen table and an ancient wood stove and an outdoor claw foot tub overlooking the Pacific Ocean, and that was enough. We read books and drank champaign in the bath and watched the ocean crawl by.

Excerpts from the series “Unwritten Notes” - Photographs Made Elsewhere.

Comprised of work spanning nearly 15 years, the series is largely autobiographical and draws entirely from images made on the road, away from home...

Prints available upon request.

Unwritten Notes, Jenner, California

#0268_12A Jenner, California - 2013

So it’s September of 2013 and all of a sudden I’ve got this well adjusted girlfriend and a Mexican beach dog and we take trips on the weekend like adults do. Mendocino, Sebastopol, Napa Valley. We used to go to this little place in Jenner up the coast, with a big deck and a hot tub that over looked the forest and drink copious amounts of vodka gimlets and read books and take naps and make love and for the first time in a long time things were really good.

I knew, somehow, for whatever reason, things were going to be good for a while. I don’t know why. That’s really all there was to it. We moved in together a few months later and were married within about a year.

Excerpts from the series “Unwritten Notes” - Photographs Made Elsewhere.

Comprised of work spanning nearly 15 years, the series is largely autobiographical and draws entirely from images made on the road, away from home...

Prints available upon request.