Works in Progress

I've been working on a series of images about the lives of a group of young people from Brooklyn who escape to a secret, remote, rural location in the U.S. after the world falls into chaos after a huge catastrophic event (economic collapse, water shortage, etc etc). This group establishes a small farm with crops and a few animals. They hunt, raise chickens, bathe together, conduct meetings, breed dogs, and live off the land sustainably. It's not exactly a utopia, but it's a working, functioning community.

I want to grow as an image maker with this series and go places compositionally and stylistically I haven't gone before. I've been less interested in using the computer lately, so the only computer manipulation on these are color correction.

The first image depicts one of the commune members after her first chicken killing. Living in nature is a struggle and animal meat is rich in calories and proteins necessary for survival. However, the commune acknowledges that animals feel pain and that eating them is a luxury not a birthright. All commune members contribute equally and specialization is nonexistent. Each member can perform all chores and tasks associated with maintaining the commune. Each person is important and essential to the community.


The next image depicts the daily gathering of water from the well. The commune members have successfully trained their dogs to help with the work. They have even begun to breed dogs for specialized tasks, but not enough time has passed for the breeding to be a complete success.