09/29/2024
Guess which one is me? Photographed in Bozeman, Montana, 1996. Long before the mobile phone when a formal portrait was in its final throes, I sat for this photograph. It was the same time I picked up a camera in earnest. When I left my home state of New Jersey for Montana 25 years ago, my East Coast eyes were enamored with what the American West was all about. Skies unimaginably bigger than the skyscrapers I grew up in the shadow of; undammed and undamned rivers reflecting the contours of a building thunderstorm miles away, and wild trout breaking the placid surface much like the hail and rain that would fall on those late summer afternoons. I was 18 years old and back then Bozeman wasn’t Boz-Angeles, but rather a bunch of ski bums intermingled with a whole lotta real cowboys. It is where I learned a lot about rodeo, whiskey and a whole lot about the benefits of farming and ranching. It didn’t last long, until now, after two decades. I left Los Angeles for one of the best parts of California, buying a ranch with cows and horses and every now and then a couple hundred roaming, giggling wild quail that pass through, a hunting bobcat not far behin. I love LA and my history, it’s made much of who I am, but this is the life I originally sought out back in Montana 1996. I’m older, have a few more bucks in the pocket and have enough success to do it on my own terms at a point in my life where it feels “early enough to enjoy” and just a shade short of “not too late.” Filmmaking and photography - and my career - are at a prolific level since I got here. It’s amazing what being honest to who you are can do for all aspects of your life. Its been three years in Santa Ynez and I’ve learned conservation and nature on a ranch or a farm is a lot like a national park or national wildlife refuge, but without the crowds. Lots more to come, stay tuned and yeehaw y’all.
