Personal projects - photo, video, art, production, fabrication, politics. More coming soon.
Iron and Air magazine
2020 Baja 1000 race recap
November 2020, amid the frustration and exhaustion of post-Covid reality, I headed to Mexico to race the 2020 Baja 1000 with two other riders and a chase crew of friends.
We raced the 898.4 mile race in 40 hours, 15 minutes, and 22 seconds of constant challenges and problem solving.
Racing the Baja 1000 would never be considered “easy”; our race was rife with mechanical issues, difficult team communication, some minor chaos, little sleep, and a lot of problem solving.
We ran 3rd in class for well over the first half of the race and had a pretty solid pace until our rider had a catastrophic breakdown in Matomi Wash, at which point we fought to just finish in the time limit. In the end we finished 99th out of 99 finishing teams and 185 starting teams. We came in dead last. That said, we all felt like we’d rather get dead last in the Baja 1000 than end up in a forgettable mid-pack position. I heard rumor that 324x was known as “the fasted dead last team in Baja.” I’ll take it.
I wrote a piece for issue 043 Iron and Air magazine, detailing our hardships, struggles, and how we finally overcame the odds. It’s available on their website. You can read the full, unedited 3,000 word piece here.
Photos are courtesy of my friend Dave Coy. Image retouching by Campfire Creative Studio.
Lane Share Oregon
Motorcycle policy advocacy and lobbying
For the last 20+ years, motorcycles have provided me with community, friendship, adventure, travel, peace, education, and an endless ceiling for self improvement. My love for motorcycles and the motorcycle community led me to volunteering with Lane Share Oregon, an organization of lobbyists in Oregon advocating for motorcycle policy.
In 2019 and 2021, Lane Share Oregon worked hard to pass HB2314 and SB574, both aimed at legalizing a limited and safe version of motorcycle lane sharing. SB574 passed the Oregon house with a 2/3rds majority, and the Oregon senate with a 3/5ths majority. However, despite massive support from the Oregon motorcycle community, businesses, and elected officials, Governor Kate Brown vetoed the bill. Nevertheless, I’m proud of the work I partook in with the dedicated volunteer lobbyists working with LSO.
A Weather Walked In
Preserving Charlie Haughey’s lost and found Vietnam War photo collection
The Vietnam War marked a true turning point in American war coverage and photojournalism. For the first time in history, the graphic horrors of a modern war on the other side of the globe were conveyed to the public in near real time.
Larry Burroughs, Nick Ut, Eddie Adams, children covered in Napalm, execution of a Viet Cong officer, Mỹ Lai. There’s an abundance of visceral imagery from the Vietnam War.
In 2012, I met retired carpenter Charlie Haughey. He casually mentioned to me his collection of photos from his time from 1967 to 1969 in Vietnam as a rifleman with the US Army’s 25th infantry division. We became fast friends, and I quickly became obsessed with his photos and preserving the original negatives as a collection of prints and a book of imagery.
As Charlie puts it, his photos showcase “the life side of the war, not the death side of it.” This is what truly set Charlie apart from his peers who photographed the war. Charlie photographed young enlisted US soldiers, stalwart Vietnamese civilians, majestic and dramatic helicopters, and the war torn environment around him—all with compassion and curiosity, while still carrying a rife and walking point and flank with a rifle platoon for much of the time. The photos provide a unique and intimate perspective into the lives of the men and women in his unit, moments of tension in combat, the downtime found outside of “the job”, and the sometimes heated but sometimes mundane interactions between the US GIs and Vietnamese civilians.
I’ve spent almost a decade with Charlie’s photos now, printing and framing images for gallery showings; getting the collection and Charlie as much press coverage as possible; crowdfunding a print book and iOS book of his images; and scanning and cataloging the negatives and slides for future generations. The collection has been covered by The Boston Globe and The Atlantic; we’ve produced and sold hundreds of prints; volunteers who love Charlie and the photo collection have scanned and retouched thousands of images; Ken Burns used one of Charlie’s images as the thumbnail for the trailer for Burn's’ series The Vietnam War.
It’s a dream for any producer or artist to work with such incredible work—so much so that I’ve worked entirely for free for thousands of hours. Working with Charlie and his collection has been a life-changing blessing I’m thankful for.
Producing 40” x 60” silver gelatin archival prints from Charlie’s original negatives