Life and Other Adventures

This series has been an on-going visual journal of my journeys and encounters over the last 15 years.  Its a veritable mashup of travel and everyday existence.  As I get older, I find that even the seemingly ordinary moments can actually become magical.  It's all really about how you view it and live in it.

Emily Comes To Me in a Dream

I met Emily briefly in the spring of 2010 and her essence lingered with me.  We then crossed paths again that fall and I knew that something significant awaited me.  I was living between New York and Buenos Aires at the time and we began an electronic flirtation that lasted 3 months.  When we finally "touched down" in New York, it was obvious that we were destined to share life together.  She became my muse and life partner.  During a trip to Asheville, North Carolina, we found a vintage dress that looked like something Alice, from Alice in Wonderland might have worn.  It inspired us to start a series around the world imagining if Alice left Wonderland.

Jungle Juice

It seems that gas stations are not that available in areas around Cambodia; easier for people to buy it by the liter from stands in the jungle at a premium.  I can’t imagine the relief when you are about to run out of gas in the sweltering heat and find one these stands. They could easily be mistaken for a strange jungle concoction.  In some ways they are.

Gas is contained in recycled bottles; Jack Daniels bottles, water or soda bottles.  I cannot help but think about the layer of violence in the images, just below the beauty and the sheer bizarreness of it; Molotov cocktails, explosives. 

Most sit in the blazing hot sun though out the day.  I wonder how many have actually exploded.

Gas is more expensive in Cambodia than anywhere else in Southeast Asia because most of it is imported.  We (in the United States), are so spoiled by availability and prices.  Here in the jungle, the gas costs about 50% more than your corner gas station.  And, it seems that most of the gas at these roadside stops is smuggled in from Vietnam.  Most of it also includes additives; cooking oil, water and I am sure, many other things.

All of the images were taken around Siem Riep, Cambodia.