The project . . . A 2021 one year journey across America

In March of 2020 I was supposed to go on an photo journalistic assignment to India for about four weeks, and in September I was supposed to go on assignment to Moscow, Beirut, Istanbul, and Marrakesh.

COVID-19 placed a halt with visa restrictions on all my assignments until a later unknown date and I was terribly  frustrated.  During that time (beginning with March) I kept busy with webdesigns for many clients; I documented current events like the riots in Kenosha, WI; ongoing borderland issues, and I documented extensively the pandemic in and around Las Cruces.  If you like, you can check out my pandemic page here >>

As I documented the pandemic, I became aware of the many struggles that people encountered.  I documented them in articles that about 20 citizens wrote for my blog.

I also noticed how our country was changing in a fast pace.  Many people started to form factual or non-factual opinions about our constitutional rights, politics, racism, healthcare, schooling, sports, etc.  I noticed (as you probably) a sometimes deep divide that destroyed respectful discussions on every level.

As we near the upcoming presidential election, it became clear to me that our country and our life (as individuals and as a community) will never return to the ‘old’ normal.  It dawned on me that most of the country is on the edge of a very fragile crest that seems to crumble more and more every day. 

By the middle of August I played out in my mind the different scenarios of how life would continue after the election and how we as people of this great Nation would react.  I believe that it will lead to more divisions and there will be no winners (just proclaimed winners).

So I decided that I would document the upcoming year in different communities all across America in pics, videos, blog for all of us to remember.  In NO way will I give you a partisan view . . .  but rather try to offer you a reflection of who we are as a Nation.

Maybe it will help us to renew attributes like empathy and maybe, just maybe find a moral compass for humanity again.

My objective is after my journey to write maybe a book about my experiences, to have a gallery show about key moments captured in pics and to to pitch this project as a documentary to Netflix through an independent film project.

In order to do this project, I would need a van I can live in on my journey that I envisioned to begin in January 2021.  My objective is to travel for about 3 weeks (more or less) through one part of the country, document the journey and people and then return home for about 2 weeks.  After the two weeks I would start my journey again to a different part of the country.

If in fact the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions would be lifted during this time, I would still do my foreign assignments and they would not influence this project, just extend it.

I will keep you posted about the journey planning details with a map that I will publish by around December.

Finally on Fri., September 11th I bought a 15 passenger 2014 Chevrolet Express LS 3500 van. (see pic above) for $12,000. In the upcoming two/three months I will convert the van into a camper-van after I toss all the seats out so I can live in it, and I promise you I will keep you posted about every detail and cost of this conversions project.

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By no means will this be an extensive build out of the van.  It will include bed, sofa, cabinets, commode, auxiliary battery system, generator, roof vent on a minimalist level. 

My objective is to keep the build out at around $3,000.00.

Follow me  and I will give you every detail of my build out from pricing, to pics, struggles, etc.
And:  At the end of this blog you will see a comment section . . . please let me know suggestions about my upcoming build out, themes you maybe interested in during my journey (religion, politics, etc.)