I grew up with my extended family on a farm in suburban Long Island, surrounded by acres of woods. Influenced by the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960's, my parents maintained an agricultural lifestyle as malls and supermarkets developed around us. We heated with wood, grew and canned our food and bartered plants for everything from shoes to dentistry. At the same time, we remained connected to the electrical grid and, when I left for college, my immediate family owned four cars, five computers and one nonworking television.
Since 2006 I have befriended, photographed and interviewed a network of people in Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky and Georgia who have responded to environmental concerns and predictions of economic collapse by moving to rural areas and adopting wilderness or homesteading lifestyles. My subjects vary in their religious beliefs and cultural practices but they all share a desire for self-sufficiency. Most live off-the-grid, build their homes from local materials, obtain their water from nearby springs and hunt, gather or grow their own food.
I want the series to explore the human relationship with wilderness and the psychology behind the desire for independence from the mainstream. I am fascinated by the points of intersection between their ideals, the ubiquitous availability of the mainstream world and the hard work necessary to maintain an alternative lifestyle.