I was born into a brotherless world. Well, no blood-brothers anyways. And don’t get me wrong – I am forever grateful for and deeply love the two sisters I was born in-between. In fact, I think it is the woman-filled world that I grew up into that makes me the manly man I am today.

But I think I always sought out surrogate brothers in my life. And I am surrounded by a boat-full of them. My love for the humans (both male and female) in my life is something I can’t always put words to. I often feel like I have a bottomless pit of love to give, but as a flawed human, commonly run dry and fall short in my ability to love well.

But I keep on trying.

Eight years ago this May I met Josh McBride at the top of “Caf Hill” (as we called it in college). He wore Birkenstocks and had 15-inch long curly hair. Little did I know the adventure I was setting out on. He would, along with Jon Crosswhite, become part of a trio that would help usher me into some semblance of manhood. Cheesy? I don’t care. It’s true.

Josh and Jon are incredibly different then me. In fact, it is those differences that have caused me to be so connected to them. I have a couple other dear friends that are nearly as equal to them in depth of friendship. But Josh and Jon’s unique role in my life is in their honesty, transparency, and in how our differences sharpen us as individuals.

I may very well have quoted this here before… so bare with me because I think it’s worth a second read.

“The greatest of disadvantages is that we are too prone to welcome everybody else’s wrong solution to the problems of life. There is a natural laziness that moves us to accept the easiest solutions – the ones that have common currency among our friends. That is why an optimistic view of life is not necessarily always a virtuous thing. In a time like ours, only the coarse grained still have enough resistance to preserve their fair-weather principles unclouded by anxiety. Such optimism may be comfortable but is it safe? In a world where every lie has currency, is not anxiety the more real and the more human reaction? …

This truth never becomes clear as long as we assume that each one of us, individually, is the center of the universe. We do not exist for ourselves alone, and it is only when we are fully convinced of this fact that we begin to love ourselves properly and thus also love others. What do I mean by loving ourselves properly? I mean, first of all, desiring to live, accepting life as a very great gift and a great good, not because of what it gives us, but because of what it enables us to give to others…

It is therefore of supreme importance that we consent to live not for ourselves but for others. When we do this we will be able first of all to face and accept our own limitations. As long as we secretly adore ourselves, our own deficiencies will remain to torture us with an apparent defilement. But if we live for others, we will gradually discover that no one expects us to be “as gods.” We will see that we are human, like everyone else, that we all have weaknesses and deficiencies, and that these limitations of our plays a most important part in all our lives. It is because of them that we need others and others need us….

Nothing at all makes sense, unless we admit, with John Donne, that: ‘No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.’”

Eight years ago I began a friendship with two people that I didn’t expect to become friends with – and wouldn’t have likely picked out of a crowd as two people to spend life with. But I’m so glad that we were thrown together. Because they, like me, sought truth in their own hearts and lives. They longed for meaning and hope, redemption and forgiveness– and all that amidst sharing the dark truths of the other. For in opening up our greatest insecurities and demons to each other, we acknowledged and took heart that these had no power over us, that we were, after all, completely and totally spared from these shadows.

As Thomas Merton explains, we are unable to truly find ourselves without other people around us. And that takes “truth-hunting.” I am a failure at a great many things… and I succeed at a couple things here in there, depending on how loosely you use the word “succeed.” But I hope that I will never stop being a truth-hunter, not only for myself, but for my brother as well.

I’m thankful for the brothers in my life that surround me in the forest– are my eyes on all sides where I can’t see, my ears to hear the crackle of steps from predators, and my company around the fire after the hunt, when the goodness of life lights up the woods around me, illuminating what was once shadow.

The 3rd and 4th picture (as well as the cover photo for the film) courtesy of Ira Lippke.

directed by ADAM SJÖBERG
with ARTHUR HITCHCOCK & ANTHONY FELIX
footage from trip ARTHUR HITCHCOCK & ANTHONY FELIX
music by MICHAEL WILSON, WILDCAT! WILDCAT!, BEN BISHOP, SEAN DIMOND
news footage courtesy of KNOP, NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA

Hitchcock Walks from Loose Luggage on Vimeo.

It’s been a banner year, and I’m so very grateful. Putting together this highlights reel was a bit cathartic– almost surreal– as I thought back through all of the projects and places that this year has taken me. Dozens of shoots, 13 countries (if I’m counting right), and a broad range of stories. Frankly, I’m overjoyed and humbled. And I’m so excited for what 2012 has to offer.

90% of what you see in this little piece are from the last 12 months.

Here’s to another adventurous, inspiring 12 months!

I recently had the pleasure of hanging out with Arthur Hitchcock and his devoted friend Anthony here in the city I love. Arthur has a pretty remarkable story that I can hardly do justice in a few words here.

Last Sunday he walked into the Atlantic Ocean near Coney Island after a 5 month journey on foot from Long Beach, CA. Arthur is one of very few modern men to accomplish such a task.

The journey began months before he set foot outside of his home town. When Arthur was only two years old his father, a photographer, passed away very suddenly. Since then he and his mother have been each others world. In September of 2010 she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. One month later she passed away. With both of his parents gone, Arthur began preparing for an epic journey across the United States entirely on foot. It was a funeral march, of sorts. A chance to think, escape, move forward… one step at a time… and honor his mother’s spirit as a passionate adventurer and his father as a photographer.

In a few days I’ll be heading to Augusta, Maine to see him complete his journey. He has a million stories to tell, so I’ll leave that up to him. Check out his photos and stories here and help support the fight against breast cancer here.

Photo 2 down is Anthony. Read the article below (and stay tuned) for more info on Arthur’s story.

Arthur, you inspire me.

Well, I’m still releasing this today but definitely at (literally) the eleventh hour. I’m up in the mountains for a shoot and thought for sure that I would have had Internet before now.

I’ll keep this short and sweet. This project was born in late January of this year. It took a month and a half to plan, a single day to shoot, and now six months to finish. In a lot of ways I was exercising creative muscles that I’d not yet used and it was an incredibly rewarding growing experience to make.

I was overwhelmed from the beginning to have such amazing talent- Tyler Riggs and Suvi Koponen. Go ahead, google them. They’re rockstars in the fashion world and were incredibly versatile actors. As I mentioned, it was a one day shoot which is a very short time to shoot such a breadth of content and they were fabulous– braving the freezing cold Chelsea piers and sitting in lukewarm bathwater for an hour and a half. Not to mention they were a delight off camera.

Also a million thanks to Janelle Wible who produced this with me. Without her selfless efforts I never would have finished it (or started it for that matter).

Below are the rest of our amazing crew. I will add links to all their work when I have better internet but in the mean time please google them because they all have amazing personal work. Thanks a million to all of you! Without your belief in this project and selfless dedication the day of, it wouldn’t have happened.

Enjoy.

Talent: Tyler Riggs, Suvi Koponen
Executive Producer: Janelle Wible
Music: Son Lux, The Silver Boys
Stylist: Dawn West
Makeup: Virginia Linzee
Second Camera: Nathan Smith
Assistants: Evelyn Rivera & Lily Fan
Set provided by: Andrea & Ira Lippke
Wardrobe provided by: Vera Wang & Native Son
Additional wardrobe provided by: Sonia Rykiel, Quail, Apolis, Lekuin, Okuta, Velvetine, & Mina Ro Mina
Special thanks to: Next Models, Red Model Management, Medium Concepts, LuxCartel

Well, I’m not complaining because I realize the rest of the country has been in the same state… but it’s HOT. And in my neighborhood, that means all of the fire hydrants get opened up for a daily block party. These photos were all taken in Hamilton Heights in Harlem on different blocks.

Also of note (but unrelated): Check out this TED talk by Nadia Al-Sakkaf where she chats about “Shake the Dust.” Nadia is the Editor-in-Chief at the Yemen Times and an important interview/voice in my film.

I’ve seen the sun rise 3 out of the last 6 nights. I sortof feel like I’ve been living in a cave (with the exception of a crazy night out dancing Friday night… my legs hurt). But it’s been good. Cathartic. Coffee is keeping me going, even though my eyes are burning from staring at a computer screen.

It could be reminiscent of my time in Art School when I would be up in my studio going just a little bit coocoo making Facebook pages about my sweatpants to distract myself from finishing an overambitious, last-minute projects (or staring at photos in the darkroom literally forgetting what time of day it is). But it’s not. For some reason I just feel really motivated… I have a lot of deadlines and they’re all basically… next weekend. So. Here I am. Tired but thankful.

Check out this video… every year a group my friends gather for a weekend of music-making. Two weeks from now we’ll do it for the 4th year in a row. So excited:

I have a “misc” folder that contains close to a thousand images from “off-camera” at various shoots. Some of them are funny moments that I maybe shouldn’t keep, but can’t bear to get rid of (none of the images here) and a lot of them are test images where my assistant or second gun is stepping in. Some are just crazy in-between moments. I’m sure I’ll post more out of this folder in the future, but for now here is a smattering. The first and last image was taken by Dave Tosti. You’ll see Nate Pelz a lot in here because he was my primary assistant/post-production-guru in 2010.

And I feel like I need to address something unrelated really briefly: The Yemen footage is still being sorted and pieced together! I promise I’m not just holding out on everyone. But I’m also waiting to release the official “Shake the Dust” website at the same time I release the Yemen trailer. I know, I know. I said I wanted to finish it by the end of February, and it’s now almost mid-April… but sometimes I’m just unrealistic about my time-line. Don’t know what I was thinking on that one. Can’t wait for you all to see it though. And can’t wait to head to Haiti in May!

I just needed to get this out and it’s going to take more then 140 characters. With the protests happening in Cairo and Yemen – and considering the fact that I will be in both places over the next 48 hours – I have (understandably) had multiple people ask me if I’m planning to document any of it. My honest inclination is that I have no desire to cover these stories. Yes, they are worthy stories to be told, but not by this storyteller. There are plenty of photographers covering the event and to be honest, the role I’ve been playing over the last 2 months has been to try and dig beneath headlines and find the stories that are underneath.

As much as Americans love to hear about peaceful assembly and democratic exercises, I’m also aware (with these things happening in front of my nose) of the way in which the Western media sensationalizes and plays up such events. I want, in my heart of hearts, for peace and prosperity for the beautiful people of Yemen. And if they want to organize and protest their (corrupt) government – I’m excited that they’re leaving their khat behind and doing that. But I guess I just feel a little… tired. Tired of seeing Yemen in the New York Times only when there’s an excuse to start the headline with Al Qaeda in the first sentence. And with Uganda – where they only make headlines when there’s a reason to show how corrupt and undeveloped they are. It’s not just that I’m an idealist – I promise - it’s more that I’m afraid we in the West are just going to believe the insipid lie that the only thing that makes a Ugandan a Ugandan is war and poverty. And the only thing that makes a Yemeni a Yemeni, is that he may or may not have strong ties with Al Qaeda. These are lies – and they are pervasive. These are people, not headlines.

I don’t know why this is effecting me so much. As I said, I’m tired. I’m at the end of a long two months of filming. And things that seem so black and white from across the Atlantic, are not only gray – but shades of every color in the rainbow when you look at them from a stones throw.

I guess I’d rather hear about the war in Uganda from my friends at Invisible Children – people who are not only informed about the war, but entrenched in the battle to end it – and deeply connected to the real people and culture of Uganda. Or my dear friends from Discover the Journey, who eat, sleep, and breath the stories of injustice they’re telling. These storytellers KNOW and COMMUNICATE that these wars, diseases, and corrupt governments are most certainly NOT what define these people.

CNN, The New York Times, God bless ‘em because I know journalism is a struggling field, they’re in many ways hustling. They’re selling an angle. And as one who holds Truth up as something to strive after, I’m looking for the real stories in the places I’m visiting and the people I’ve come to love.

On a personal note, it was kind of a fun moment for me to see these words projected on a white wall with hundreds in attendance:

Without further ado:

A couple of months ago I had the privilege of traveling to Ventanilla outside Lima, Peru with some good friends from New York and the organization, Alegria. I’m currently working on a short documentary for Alegria from our time there, but in the mean time I’ve put together a short teaser.

Enjoy the teaser, and then head over to Alegria’s website to learn more about the great organization.

This list:

1.  Shooting season.  I’m currently reaching the finish line of my shooting year.  All told, I will have shot 30 weddings, plus dozens of engagement shoots, portrait shoots, events, fashion/editorial shoots, head shots, product shots, live music, and multiple documentary films.  It’s been a great/formative year filled with tons of learning opportunities– I’ve been stretched so much this year– and my business has grown significantly.  If 2009 was one my most challenging years on record, 2010 was transitional, and I’m so excited for what is to come in 2011.

2.  “Shake the Dust.”  I am officially (after over 3.5 years of anticipation and planning) going to be finishing my documentary film about break-dancing in unexpected places.  The final roster of locations is wrapping up to be (somewhat unofficially): Cairo, Egypt; Sanaa, Yemen; Jersualem, Israel; Goma, DRC; Gulu, Uganda; Pnomh Penh, Cambodia.  My plan in the 8 weeks I’ll be traveling this winter, is to be blogging every day… Photos, videos, updates. We’ll see how I do with that – but I really want to keep the story of the whole production well documented – and this is my journal. So excited:

3.  I’m working on a total re-brand.  Portfolio site. Reel. Bio. Blog. Business cards. Leave-behinds. It’s been about 6 months in the works (mainly because I haven’t been able to devote full attention to it).  Pretty soon this blog will even be getting a pretty significant make-over.  Still trying to decide if I’ll have to rebuild from the ground up, or just give the old blog a face-lift right where it is.  The design is done – just need to implement it.

4.  This song has been playing a bit in my head and in my ears this week.  It also makes me think a lot about the photos that I’m post here (though random, they may be). The video is a time-lapse of our new studio in Williamsburg.

5. Below is a random cocktail of images from the last year that have been sitting in folders as “pending blog posts.” I’ve gotten pickier about what I post, which is part of why I don’t post as often (that and a complete lack of excess time) – but going through all of these photos today I really just wanted to share them. So here they are .

A.  Summer.  It was weird… a few random moments with my wonderful parents, and this first one – can you see the fireflies?

B.  A lot of guests come through this wonderful city of ours…

C.  These photos are from a year ago.  Did I already mention how much has changed since then?

D.  Had the ultimate pleasure of becoming “Uncle Adam” (or “Cousin Adam?” YTBD) to these amazing munchkins:

E.  For 2 years now, I’ve called both Long Beach and New York home.  As of now, 100% of my 2011 bookings are East Coast/International.  That doesn’t mean I won’t be visiting the golden coast from time to time – but I do feel like an era is sort of ending.  LOVE that place… and especially love the people in it.  Change.  Wow.  Change is crazy.

F.  Went to Washington DC during a really hot stretch this summer.  None of the other photos I took made the cut… but this kind of shows how HOT it was.

G.  And lastly – just a bunch of iPhone photos to commemorate summer – and the passing of my iPhone 3G.

Click for larger version.

Click for larger version.

Read/view while listening to Blind Pilot.

Yesterday was one of those travel days where everything goes wrong. I should have been westbound on a plane from MKE to LGB that would have had me in before noon with a rental car awaiting me on my arrival. But because I missed my flight it ended up looking a lot more like this: Bus from MKE to ORD, 3 hours of waiting, flight to Charlotte, North Caroline, more waiting, long, boring, endless flight to LAX. No rental car. Metro trip from LAX to Long Beach. All told, it was a 15 hours travel day.

This morning is a lot more peaceful. I’m using the time difference to my advantage and I’m sitting at my usual Long Beach spot – Portfolio coffeehouse. It’s 7 am and it is COLD! I’m wearing a sweater and denim shirt and still the cool air catches me off guard when the door next to me pops open. It’s making me so excited for New York fall weather.

Yesterday my sole entertainment on my cross-country flight was the latest issue of DETAILS magazine. Let me just say that I read every piece of text there was to read in that thing purely out of boredom. One of the articles was a one-page interview with Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy. Now don’t get me wrong, Seth is a comic genius (maybe just purely a genius) but we do not share the same worldview. One of his comments caught me off-guard: “Carl Sagan said that we are ‘significance junkies.’ We love to attach patterns to everything we see. Not everything has meaning to it. I can’t afford to let it turn me into somebody who suddenly believes that he’s being watched over by a higher power. It’s kind of arrogant; that’s a lot of bandwidth for whoever is up there to have to maintain at any given time—Andy Dick alone would take up so much time and energy.”

It’s within my personality to make connections. In my mind – probably to a fault – everything has meaning. Everything is connected. Even my long day of travel was filled with meaning: creative ideas I wouldn’t have otherwise had, personal thoughts I wouldn’t have realized, people I wouldn’t have met. For instance, I met a woman sitting next to me who was en route to visit her estranged daughter and son. She had a fascinating and heartbreaking story. I couldn’t help but think, as I usually do, what if I hadn’t been on this flight? I would never have had this interaction.

Sitting twenty feet from me right now is a man named Fred. Fred is my personal prophet. I’m kind of kidding, but kind of serious. He’s an older man that reads the paper at Portfolio nearly every morning. And sometimes he ropes me into conversation and usually tells me incredibly profound things about my life. And then I won’t see him for a year and then we’ll pick up where we left off the last time.

Today I’m too tired for prophecy so I’m avoiding eye contact. But Fred is one of those people that, had I not had the first interaction, I wouldn’t probably not have continued to have this bizarre, fascinating relationship with the man of the years. A string of interactions linked back to one latte and bagel and Thomas Merton reading session where it all started.

I guess despite Seth’s words, and despite my (possibly) over-imaginative propensity to find meaning in everything, I can’t help it. Because I believe in God, and believe he has a purpose for us, the meaning is there. I don’t have to pull it out or connect links… it just rises to the surface.

The photos in the post were from a year ago in August. My screen on my camera was broken at the time and I accidentally overexposed all of the pictures so I pretty much discarded them… However, I revisited them yesterday and found new hope in them. They’re more contrasty (woah, blacks) then usual, but I kinda like how they’re sort of a mixture of moody/dark and light/ethereal.

I have clearly been silent here.

In fact, I was shocked to see that the last time I posted was on May 24, 2010.  So, for all of June and some few days in May and July, I just haven’t been present in the blogosphere.  Some time in the middle of June was the two year anniversary of the day I posted for the first time.  Since then I’ve posted some 559 posts.  Blogging, for me, is an outlet.  But mostly a creative outlet.  In general (but with some exceptions) I tend to keep it pretty professional.  Yes, the things I write and the pictures I post are reflective of my life.  But this website is primarily a forum for sharing images, and less a place for spewing my deepest thoughts and desires.

That is why, my friends, I went 40 days without posting.  Because sometimes life takes over, and what can be very therapeutic (blogging) is instead a complete drag.

In other words, when things get heavy for me, sometimes I’m just silent.  But fear not… I’m here.  I’m back.  Ready for action.  After 36 days away from New York, I’m back.  I did some spring cleaning today (since I missed out at the end of May), and I’m now sitting on my bed, with a terrier at my side, on top of a pile of freshly laundered sheets, pillow cases, and duvet covers, thinking.  Feeling relieved.  Feeling like I’m getting back to reality.  Feeling the heaviness start to lift.

I’ll keep things generally brief.  I’m terrible at that… but it’s worth a shot.

For those of you that regularly peruse the images on this blog, Nathan Pelz will be a familiar name.  Or at least a familiar face:

Back in May (oh my gosh– has it really been this long??) it was discovered that Nate had a baseball-sized tumor in his abdomen.  After visiting with an oncologist, Nate and his wife Holly made an appointment for an out-patient needle biopsy for Friday, May 28, 2010.  It was supposed to be quick, relatively painless.

With some freedom in my schedule during that time, I flew out to Phoenix to hang out with Holly and Nate, two of my dearest friends, as they awaited the results of the pathology report.  However, by the time I woke up at 6:00 AM the morning after Nate’s biopsy to head to Laguardia, I had a frantic text message from Holly that Nate had been kept at the hospital overnight and had been in extreme pain.  She was, understandably, terrified.

It would be a project beyond what I’m capable of completing right now to try and transcribe how the next 6 weeks played out.  Your best bet is to head over to the blog we created where you can read and see much of the details of the journey Holly and Nate have been through. I told Holly’s sister, Hillary, that I couldn’t write anything on here until now.  Whatever I would have written would have been charged with way too much melodrama– something I’m often prone to when writing about things that profoundly effect me.  So I’ll refrain from being too verbose with the exception of a few minor points…

When I was in Haiti in January I held a 7 year old boy with a gangrene severed foot while he was anesthetized (needle-to-bone) for amputation.  He weeped, clawed at my neck, cried out, and eventually wet himself in my arms.  In the hospital in Phoenix, I spent four nights up with Nate.  The type of pain he was feeling, I was told by one doctor, is some of the worst pain a human can experience.  I stayed up through the night watching Nate sweating, shaking, yelling.  And there was nothing I could do about it.  It reminded me of that boy in Haiti.

Even now, I have a hard time thinking or talking about those nights in Phoenix.  As much as this last month and a half has been a roller coaster , those were by far the worst parts for me– culminating on the fifth day.  It was then that Nate sat his brother and I down in the hospital room to tell us, with a trembling voice, that he had an aggressive tumor that was wrapped around his superior mesenteric artery, that it was inoperable, and that it was probably going to eventually kill him.  I’ll never ever forget that moment.  Only thirteen months after Nate and I shared the burden of carrying our twenty-six year-old friends’ casket, I was now watching Nate face his own mortality.  And as I sat in the hospital room with Nate, many of the same emotions from that friends’ funeral started flooding back.

But at the risk of continuing my reputation as a plot-spoiler, I can tell you that this story has a happy ending.  However, before things went from bad back to better, there was an interim of waiting.  And during that waiting I saw some pretty powerful things happen.

After being taken by air ambulance from Phoenix to Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis, I drove Nate’s car, along with Jon’s brother and Holly’s good friend Allison, to Indiana.  On the morning we arrived, a group of people crowded into Nate’s hospital room to pray for him.

I remember he was looking frail and broken.  He was still battling severe pain, was confused by the many unanswered questions, and overwhelmed by the possibility of the worst.  Yet we gathered, a scattered and awkward community, and joined hands around him.  We were a complicated crew.  There was certainly some broken relationships– perhaps some poisoned relationships.  But we all had one thing in common– the desire for a miracle.  I looked around the room.  I knew all those people quite well.  I knew the brokenness. I also knew how all these people loved Nate.

And then Nate’s father, Dave, asked him if he had any thing he wanted to say.

Nate was exhausted.  But he managed to say a few words. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know that God wants to use this to heal broken relationships.”

I guess I don’t know how to feel about everything that happened.  I mean, primarily I’m just thankful that my friend, who I thought might be dead by now, is very much alive.  But when things like this happen I’m always knocking my head against the wall, trying to figure out in the midst of the aftermath– “How should I now live?”

And I know it’s not about me.  It’s not even about Nate.  But it feels right to look inward before I look outward.  So that’s what I’m doing.  Now that my feet are back on the ground, that’s my starting point.

In the mean time, please check out Nate and Holly’s complete story.  Read the comments.  See how a community of people rallied and prayed, and how things went from bad, to worse, to better, to worse, to best.  You can also check out local news coverage of their journey here.

Consider my silence here broken.

New York City is exploding with spring color today. After a busy week this last week trying to get our new apartment in order (long story short, we love our new place)– I’m madly trying to get caught up on work. I was thinking about this blog the other day… and I must admit I feel a little bit of guilt when I’m neglecting it. Partly because, for a whole year, I posted almost daily, sometimes multiple times daily. It was a haven for me in the midst of a tumultuous time. And now I’m finding myself so busy and so swamped with work– though life is less “tumultuous”– that I often times just don’t have the energy at the end of the day to post something on here.

That being said, I’m committed to keeping at it. It is important for me to be daily creating, and daily sharing. I love the community of the blog world– maybe I’m just out of the honeymoon phase and entering into the part of the marriage where I need to put in some extra loving care and hard work.

Well, that’s that. Thoughts…

Below are some photos from a great engagement shoot with Grace & Nick. Flew out to Colorado for the weekend. SOO fun.

I have a few photos from shoots dating back to September of last year that I never posted, so I thought I’d throw a mish-mash of them up here today.  I haven’t been wanting to post as much wedding/engagement stuff– but rather post it here, and use Loose Luggage for more for commercial/fashion/documentary/travel work, but I’ve had a lot of fun in the last months shooting some great couples, so I wanted to share a few of those today.

I’ve finally finished my photos and slideshow from my trip to Haiti, thanks to “Soundslides,” which is a powerful program for documentary photographers who want to share their work with the world. Click on the link below which will take you to the slideshow and then you can watch it full screen, toggle the sound, watch it with or without captions, and navigate through the individual images.

Click here for the slideshow.  And spread it around, friends– let’s let these people’s voices be heard!

Here’s what I wrote to go along with the slideshow:

I did not go to Haiti with any specific expectations. However, the six days I spent there transformed me both as a photographer and as a person.

As so often happens on trips of this nature, the Haitian people did far more for me than I could ever have done for them.

I have few words to share that would express what these images mean to me, but I hope they can be ones that represent a great sorrow that ultimately points to a far greater hope.

Haiti was once referred to as “The Pearl of the West Indies.” It’s people are strong and beautiful– and though they have seen so much suffering, I hope that it will refine them and teach them to build, and rebuild. The country of Haiti is still a great Pearl, seemingly delicate as the child I watched emerge from the womb in a tent in Port au Prince, but like that child they are filled with a vibrant future that is yet unwritten.

And I greatly anticipate a better story for them all.

-Adam

I had the privilege of going to the town I was born in, Fort Wayne, IN, for a few days over the holiday. I was able to see so many friends that I rarely am able to hang out with any more.

While I was home the weather was nothing but snowy and cold. It varied a little depending on what part of the Midwest I was in, but at times it was -8 degrees Fahrenheit.

The newest (and possibly coolest) member of the people I enjoy seeing while I’m home is Isaiah, my good friend Phil’s son. He’s a class act, let me tell you. Makes me want to start wearing onesie pajamas again.

Apparently he's ticklish...

Upon closer inspection of the picture above, we realized that Kyle was looking like kind of a creeper.

I’ve been working on a side project for the last 6 months that is now finally (beginning) to come to fruition.  After 1 photo shoot and a very brief video shoot, I’m moving forward with an international “blogumentary” project entitled “Shake The Dust.”  The documentary, which will ideally be shared in the form of videos, words, and photos through Loose Luggage, will also be cut into a final mini-feature documentary.  It will cover break-dancing and b-boy culture in countries across the globe– from Brazil, to Uganda, to the Middle East, to Cambodia.

As I move forward with this project, which, I confess, is my heart, I must appeal to you all, my friends:  we need funding.  We are shooting next week here in New York City to work on putting together our first webisode as well as a promo to help us begin raising money.  In the mean time, we’re working on researching everything from grants to commercial partnerships to make this happen.

I’m already so excited about the potential of this project– not only as a stand-alone piece of art, but also as something that pushes the future of this blog.

Right now this page will operate as the “Shake the Dust” homepage.  I need a few things from you all:

1. A web designer.  I’m looking for someone with web design experience who wants to jump on board and VOLUNTEER (in hopes of future pay once we get funding).  If you’re interested, e-mail your resume/examples of work to adam@shakethedust.org.

2. Funding!  If you know any grants, public or private donors, or great brands interested in commercial partnerships (or just want to donate a bunch of money yourself) please let me know.  All of our funding is being run through The Harrison Center for the Arts who are acting as our fiscal agent.  They will be insuring that all of the funds are handled properly and with integrity as well as helping make any donation TAX-WRITE-OFFABLE.  Again, e-mail me at adam@shakethedust.org.

3. Dancers/Connections!  We’re working on developing connections with B-boys and street dancers across the planet.  We’re excited to partner with people in places like Cambodia, Korea, Uganda, among many other places.  We’d love to hear from you dancers– and anyone else that is involved in the break-dancing/b-boy world.  Once more: adam@shakethedust.org.

4. Follow me on twitter.

Before I show you a little preview of things to come, I’d like to introduce my partner and cinematographer: Mr. Patrick Jones.  You can check out his reel here.

Thank you all for your continued interest in the things that I put up on here.  I look forward to exciting days ahead…

Cat’s out of the bag:

Shake The Dust from Adam Sjoberg on Vimeo.

Among the people that I’ve been able to hang out with here, I’ve spent 48 straight hours with Holly and Nate Pelz. It was, as always, great. Here’s a string of photos from our time together.

And btw, sorry for the infrequent blog posts (that’s all I’ll say about that, [john bishop]).

So this week, as some good friends are in town, I’m doing my best to get as much work done while also living it up with them.