Our Planet

We only have one; One Earth, and one life lived on this earth. With it’s beauty and inescapable allure, it seems like we must do everything in our will to completely enjoy all the offerings that we have been so graciously offered by this astonishing planet we call home. At times, we might try to discredit and ignore all the good-tidings that Earth presents to us, but no matter how ignorant we become, we still are pulled back by everything that is incapsulated within. Yes, we can look at what we have done to Earth as a negativity- all the pollution, deconstruction, overpopulation, and extinction- however, it is not in our hearts to break down the planet in which we consume. No, we are simply learning. We are taking what every breathtaking resource that Earth is providing us, and learning to make a life out of it. In many cases, we have destroyed what came before us, and even what remains. This may seem abusive, and it is, but also, it is not. You see, we are the reciprocal of something great. What Earth has provided us is an accumulation of experimental opportunities. We are the receivers of beautiful lands, perceptive elements and an innumerous brotherhood of relationships through millions of other species. We can take a step back and see what we have done to deplete our planet of its remaining gifts, or we can look at what we have done as an exploratory process to grow, learn and work with something that we have never worked with before. This something is Out Planet, and we only get one. As we breakdown the reservoirs Earth provides us, we are also learning to create new ones. This process is one that will always continue. Whether human-kind is here to further their lively experiments, or it is some other species, we have been graced an opportunity to live amongst something great, something beautiful, and we cannot look past that.

This project began in January of 2018. In the early quarters of 2018, I was invited to be apart of an amazing opportunity. As I sat at my desk, blindly scanning through emails, I stumbled upon an email asking if I would be interested in joining the production team for a documentary-series that has been succeeding for the past few years. This documentary is an astonishing nature documentary called, Our Planet, which showcased earth and all its natural beauty. Within each episode, viewers are enamored by stunning, high-definition visuals that are complimented by strong narrative educational verses. Inside this email, was the request to send me out to various locations, in the mid-western parts of the United States, and capture strong photographic imagery of landscapes that are not commonly seen, or to photograph well-known landscapes in a way that many people have not seen before. Immediately, I jumped aboard the team. In the beginning, I traveled back and forth between my previous home of Pittsburgh, Pa, to scattered parts of Utah. With Salt Lake being the typical landing spot, I sought the company of a great friend, and incredible documentary photographer, Chloe Jakiela. On our travels, Chloe and I explored as much of the surrounding Salt Lake nature reserves as possible. Being completely engulfed in the mid-west and the beauty that I was witnessing, I soon decided that traveling between Pittsburgh and Salt Lake was not worth it. The only thing that was worth it was making a full-on move to Salt Lake. Which, eventually I did. In August of 2019, I made my move to Salt Lake City. Since making the move, I have been on a never ending exploration to document the surrounding landscapes that Utah presents to us. Since making my move to Salt Lake, the production levels for creating photographic work, for this documentary, has grown immensely. As I continue to work on the production of this documentary, you will see the images I produce unfold in this collection, and soon into the upcoming documentary series Our Planet. As time passes, I invite you to check-in on this collection as the project will continue to grow. Moreover, I strive to invite you look into Chloe Jakiela’s work. Her work is unexplainably strong, beautiful and intelligent, and while working with her on this part of this project, she has come away with some incredible work.

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