A collection of selected excerpts from John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra combined with typographic compositions and my own photography. As a native of Northern California, The Sierra Nevada has a special place in my heart. Going to the mountains is truly going home. It is my playground, sanctuary, and inspiration. There is solace in their permanence. They have been there for millennia and will always be there. They are neutral and objective—neither for you nor against you, and serve as a great equalizer. You are a mere speck. Insignificant. Regardless of societal status, in the backcountry, everyone is on an even playing field and life is pared down to the essentials.
Muir is one of my favorite authors, in addition to being one of the most legendary and influential figures in California history. First published in 1911, this is a book so beautifully written, I felt compelled to read it only when outdoors surrounded by natural beauty. I must own three different copies of it, and for this project, I wanted to go in a different direction from any others
The celebrated Scottish-American naturalist, conservationist, explorer, author and "Father of the National Parks" writes poetically, descriptively, and beautifully about the California landscape, fauna and flora, and I wished to fuse his most poetic passages with poetic composition and photography. I chose to go in a different direction than the standard High-Sierra Yosemite imagery and instead used both digitally-produced and hand-drawn abstracted pieces as well as my photography from travels to Nevada ghost towns and Death Valley National Park to create a cohesive, adventurous visual journey for the viewer.
