Boonville Diary - The New Year

Boonville, NY, 2003

Yesterday I was thinking hard about the coming year and the launch of Boonville. After too much thinking I started to get very nervous and began to experience some anxiety.

Over the last 10 months Boonville has grown to be very real. I've studied these six towns and their relationship to the rest of America very closely . I've even started to feel a kind of kinship towards them. Yesterday I started to question some things: Can I survive for a year on my own? Will I receive enough money? Can I actually pull it off? Will I get it shown? Can I pull it off? Will my point be made/received? They went on and on...

Boonville and Kevin Sisemore

Copyright Kevin Sisemore

Last week I received an email from Kevin Sisemore about my Boonville project. Turns out Kevin used to hang out in Boonville, MO as a child. This is the second random Boonville, MO connection I have made in the last month. Also, a few months back I received an email from a German reporter living near Boonville, CA (you can write from anywhere these days).


Kevin Sisemore is a photographer living in NY. The above image is from his Zoo project. From reading his blog he seems to be quite an ambitious photographer.

- A few years ago I started a project entitled “Parks and Recreation.” The idea came to me after reading an article about New York Cities 1700 parks. Every week I set out for a new park. -

Copyright Kevin Sisemore, Randall's Island

See his great hunting series here and be sure to check out the rest of his blog: Site Under Construction.

Boonville Update - Fundraising

I'm getting much closer to making this project a reality. A few weeks ago I secured a hefty equipment and film grant which takes an enormous financial burden off my shoulders.

Look for more posts about Boonville coming in the next few months. I'm hard at work with Cannery-Works, a non-profit organization helping artists like myself get such projects off the ground. We are currently working on a fund-raising plan - stay tuned.

Broad Channel...(The Boonville saga #2)

For you Minnie, Broad Channel, 2006 (Study for Boonville project)

This last July I spent 3 days in Broad Channel, Queens shooting images for my Boonville project.

Broad Channel is a very bizarre place. It is basically an island between Queens and Rockaway Beach. It is separated into two parts by Cross Bay Boulevard. Many of the homes are on the water and almost everyone has a boat. On my last day shooting I spent over 4 hours with a woman named Mary-Anne. She fed me a burger and a Bud while she spoke about the history of Broad Channel and the small amount of people that inhabit the island. She recently sent me a letter inviting Laura and I to her waterfront home for dinner. Broad Channel is very unique place.

The Boonville saga - Part one...

#1, Boonville, NY, 2003 (Study for Boonville project)

About 4 years ago Jason Covert and I went on our annual photo excursion which in turn was the beginning of the Boonville saga... My girlfriend at the time had access to a great house in upstate New York in a small Village named Boonville. We spent 5 or 6 days shooting, exploring and drinking. This time around I did most of the shooting while Jason was kind enough to pose for me. Thankfully he dealt with me and my shooting process, a slow and tedious one.

Cannery Works, A NY non-profit arts organization has really helped me massage the idea, and is helping with the funding and proposal process. I recently shook hands with a private source who says they will cover about half of my total expenses. Huge!!

After about 2 years of research, the project has come a long way since Jason and I were hanging in parking lots at 4 am, trying desperately to get rid of this crazy old lady that kept repeating "you'd like my Rachel". She kept us there for probably 2 or 3 hours.