Finale

The deed is done! Well, kinda. I've just spent a year's time folding 1000 paper cranes, just so I could see them all go up in smoke. When this project was first conceived, I had high hopes for photographing a fireball of birds and flame in the snow. I've waited all winter for the proper conditions to be met; an overcast day with beautiful fresh snow to use as my backdrop. Just then, as the magical moment came - the damn fuckers wouldn't light!!! It was too cold, and too wet. Instead the little bastards smoldered. This was some do or die kind of art making, I've never bet so much on one picture before. Making this shot made me feel like I'm alive. Since the beginning, this whole time I knew I would only have get one shot at this. If something went wrong, then that was it, try again next year.

I didn't get the shot exactly that I wanted. But in the end, I think this image is pretty tripped out too. Life is like that sometimes, you can plan out ever little detail forever and things will still screw up in the end. But I am proud of this picture, for me it represents victory in the face of defeat. I'll have more shots from this shoot uploaded onto my website in a week's time. It's been a wild ride and we are on the last stretch.

Mr. 1000

It's been snowing literally every week in Boston for more than a month now. Seeing this as a sign that I really need to get my shit together, I started actually diligently folding each day and have now finished with the folding process.

This was the last piece of paper I prepared for my thousand.


Seeing as this was the 1000th one, I thought it was only appropriate that I should do something special to it. Eventually it turned into this (I arrived at this idea by smooshing two pervious ideas together).


World, say hello to Mr. 1000!

New and Old Work

This was the first unique crane I ever did. I thought it looked kind of cool and wondered how far I could take the idea.



Inspired by a WWII fighter plane.



Here is one I made while I was visiting my friend in texas. I figured it would only make sense to shoot it with some guns.



This is the first crane I designed using photoshop. I really just wanted to see if I could use photoshop to help me come up with more complicated designs in a way that wouldn't make me wanna pull my hair out. I think it worked.

500

I started this project with the intentions of finishing 1000 cranes by the next winter. It has been about 10 months since I started, which at this point it really feels more like a lifetime ago.

Today I have over 500. I am over now half way! YES!!!

In order to celebrate I decided to shoot this portrait, which is inspired by Magritte's "Son of Man." The idea came to me, when I received some great feedback about another Magritte inspired portrait I did, which can be found here on my other photo blog.

I also have a stockpile of unique cranes that for one reason or another, such as laziness, are left still undocumented. I will be releasing them in the coming weeks, so be on the lookout!

Note: Special thanks to my good friend Billy the Kim Strong Ill for assisting me out on this shoot!! Wouldn't have been possible without you homie.

Process