Kickstarter

Hello friends and friends-to-be!

My name's Doug, and I make things. Films, photos, things-with-words, what have you. Unfortunately, I also break things. And now I need your help to get them unbroken.

Like a lot of you in our digital age, I rely on fancy-pants digital tools to create. Cameras, laptops, and so on. Perhaps unlike a lot of you, I tend to beat the shit out of my stuff. I take it to the back roads of Africa. I wield it in the face of fires and dust storms. I thrust it underwater.

I try to buy tough gear that is up to some level of abuse, because the way I work doesn't really cotton to big fancy padded camera cases and toughbooks and such. But eventually, everything fails. And that's the theme of this project.
Throughout the years I have taken hundreds of photos on one of my favorite topics: industrial decay. At least three of those photos have been any good at all. From the unoccupied dystopian bridgeworks of the L.A. River to the upturned, war-ravaged husks of tanker ships in Sierra Leone, I've gone places I probably shouldn't, at times I most certainly shouldn't to capture the unearthly calm that comes only from massive industrial complexes fallen into disuse. The beautiful horror of the things we as humans have built, and then left to ruin. You might say it's a bit of an obsession. You might also say it's becoming an American theme.

So here's the deal.

Since this theme fits my own American life so well, I'm making this simple transaction: you help me pay for repairs and replacements on my gear I have killed, and I'll produce a fine-quality photobook of my favorite pieces of industrial decay. Help me out a little and I'll say "Thanks! You're a champ!" Help me out a bit more and I'll send you one of those books, maybe even with your name in it. Help me out a lot and I'll owe you a debt of gratitude, a bunch of other stuff, and hell – maybe I'll even come to your town to see what's been abandoned lately.

I'm setting the goal of this project at the low end of what I need to realistically overhaul some of the gear I've been doing without the past few months. Laptop, lenses, flashes, etc. But does that mean you should stop there? Oh, heavens, no! Meeting these goals would be extraordinary and would get my stuff back to the nice cozy place I was 6 months to a year ago. But every dollar that I exceed my goal by will allow me to upgrade from that, increase capabilities, and make this book and everything that goes along with it even more kick-ass. So let's rock this mother.

One more thing.

I'm not the only person out there who needs stuff to do their job, and I don't believe I should be the only one to benefit. So, for every dollar that I receive as part of a fully-funded project (or beyond!), I will give 10 cents of that to Donors Choose, an organization that helps teachers buy the supplies they need to do their jobs (and so often have to buy out of their own pockets). If you're like me, you had a teacher or two in your life who went above and beyond the call of duty, and helped inspire you and change your life. Those guys need a little help too.