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Japan : I went to Japan alone for a month in October 2004. I was able to visit a large portion of the country in that time, spanning from as far as Sapporo in the north to Nagasaki in the south.

I went to Japan alone for a month in October 2004. I was able to visi ...

Updated: Mar 18, 2008 10:07pm PST

India : "When you have an awareness of anything internally, you perceive that externally. We really do, I believe, create the world that we live in. The word 'eye,' in its Sanskrit and Hebrew root, means 'fountain.' In other words, this is not an organ that's receiving vibrations from what's out there going through the brain and being interpreted. It's a projector." -Hubert Selby Jr. in conversation with Ellen Burstyn

Wendy Kubiak and I traveled across 7 states of northern India during December 2005 - February 2006. After she left, I traveled through 2 more on my own. These photographs are imbalanced in a way. I realize now that they say more about my romantic notions of India than the daily horror that most people there live in. But I hope that if there is a common denominator in these images that might redeem that imbalance, it would be that they attempt to depict something I insist on believing and often found confirmed in the lives of many living in India: that beauty is unmistakably alive in the most dire circumstances and unexpected places. As with photographs, seeing it is a matter of how you frame that reality.

"When you have an awareness of anything internally, you perceive that ...

Updated: Aug 04, 2009 11:28pm PST

Catalonia : Barcelona, Spain. August 2006.

Barcelona, Spain. August 2006.

Updated: Aug 04, 2009 11:43pm PST

Spain : From May to June 2006 I walked the Camino de Santiago, a medieval pilgrimage trail that starts in France then continues all the way across northern Spain to the supposed bones of the apostle James. Then we went further to Finistera, which, until Columbus, was believed to be the literal end of the earth. It took almost two months and covered over 800 kilometers (more than 500 miles). Along the way we slept in monasteries, medieval cathedrals, refuges for pilgrims, and one night we even slept unwittingly in a pile of shit. The route took us across the Pyrenese mountains, through the La Rioja wine region, countless small Spanish villages and occasionally a big city such as Pamplona, along the exact streets the bulls run.

Along the way, we encountered and occasionally formed alliances with a striking retinue of characters, including a frenchman named Rolly who was making the pilgrimage after incoherent visions of clowns and orgasms...Pauline, an Indosesian from Amsterdam who danced the trail instead of walking it while making elaborate sculptures out of the mud stuck on our shoes...my old friend Matt (who brought me on this adventure), the only person on the trail with the audacity to struggle for cell phone reception while hiking so he could "work" selling gear to various militaries around the world and importing tequila into the middle east...Jude, a 71 year old who was making the pilgrimage to deal with his grief over the death of his daughter, along with a friend, also in his seventies, who hiked despite having been bedridden for the last year and a half due to a severe back injury...Jan, a Brazilian who continued to walk all the way to southern Portugal despite apocalyptic physical pain just to avoid returning home to an ex girlfriend...Pepe, who believed the trees along the way were people and hugged as many as he could to make sure they felt loved...and of course, my beloved Isabelle who gave meaning to my pain.

From May to June 2006 I walked the Camino de Santiago, a medieval pilg ...

Updated: Mar 18, 2008 9:51pm PST

Corsica : The following photos are from my 125-mile climb all the way across Corsica with Isabelle, from August-September 2007. This was possibly the most grueling yet spectacular thing I have ever done. A cross between New Zealand and Tibet, Corsica is composed of some of Europe's most rugged mountains and medieval villages, almost always in view of the crystal clear Mediterranean beaches 7,000 feet below.

Our average day was essentially 10-15 miles of rock climbing without gear, which usually amounted to ascending and descending one or two mountains. At times, it was necessary to use chains bolted into the rock to manage the nearly vertical ascents. We camped when we could, carrying most of our food on our backs, and occassionally stayed at old stone bergeries (cheese farms) in the mountains.

The following photos are from my 125-mile climb all the way across Cor ...

Updated: Mar 18, 2008 9:59pm PST

The Autumns UK Tour : We toured Scotland, Wales, and England with The Dears from Montreal and Ambulance from NYC in January-February 2005.

In November of 2007, we returned to tour the U.K. and Paris, this time with The Kissaway Trail from Denmark.

This gallery contains my photos from both tours. The shots of us performing in Stoke and London were taken by people in the audience.

The Autumns UK Tour

We toured Scotland, Wales, and England with The Dears from Montreal an ...

Updated: Apr 01, 2008 7:31pm PST

Costa Rica : August-September 2005. As always, the best moments couldn't be captured on film. Some favorites: spending a Sunday night with tico families from a nearby town watching a volcano spew lava down its sides in a lightning storm. Sliding down ziplines at high speeds between treetops in the rainforest, sometimes a half mile at a time, at eye level with spider monkeys jumping from branch to branch around me. Trying to stay as quiet as possible on a Carribean beach so as not to alert countless 50 inch green turtles to my presence as they emerged from the ocean, illuminated by distant lightning, and crawled right by me to dig crater sized burrows on the shore in which to bury their eggs...

August-September 2005. As always, the best moments couldn't be captur ...

Updated: Aug 04, 2009 11:59pm PST

New Zealand : My friend Keith and I spent a month living out of a car in New Zealand from December 2003 through January 2004.

My friend Keith and I spent a month living out of a car in New Zealand ...

Updated: Mar 03, 2009 10:04pm PST

Washington : These photos were taken on a solo road trip to the Washington peninsula in November 2003 to film Fred Frith for my documentary. The photos of the Hoh Rain Forest have a certain significance for me. Upon arriving, I discovered that all roads to the rain forest were closed due to severe floods. Having driven from southern California, I was not to be deterred. Abandoning my car, I walked 5 miles past the roadblocks to reach the forest's edge. It was worth every step because there wasn't a soul there...not even a ranger. I had the miraculous privelege of sharing this place with no one except the occasional deer migrating across my path.

But things only got better when later that day I noticed some enigmatic steam up an embankment from a mountain path I was hiking. Scrambling up the incline, I discovered a series of natural hot springs near the mountain's peak. I capped off the day enjoying the sunset in one of them, cooled to the perfect temperature by the waterfall that fed into it.

These photos were taken on a solo road trip to the Washington peninsul ...

Updated: Nov 02, 2007 1:25am PST

Oregon :

Updated: Mar 13, 2007 1:15am PST

Wyoming :

Updated: Apr 21, 2006 10:39pm PST

Utah :

Updated: Mar 11, 2008 1:12pm PST

New York :

Updated: Mar 12, 2008 12:11pm PST

Maine, Connecticut, and Massachusetts

Updated: Mar 11, 2008 1:05pm PST

Montana :

Updated: Sep 29, 2008 2:11am PST

Colorado :

Updated: Mar 21, 2008 12:48am PST

New Mexico :

Updated: Nov 18, 2008 7:59pm PST

Pennsylvania :

Updated: Mar 14, 2007 2:50pm PST

North Carolina :

Updated: Mar 09, 2006 2:25am PST

Arizona :

Updated: Jun 15, 2005 7:32pm PST

Updated: Jul 23, 2006 1:44pm PST

California :

Updated: Jul 21, 2009 5:32pm PST

France : February 2005. Belgium and the Netherlands were also stops on this trip, but those photos have not been posted.

February 2005. Belgium and the Netherlands were also stops on this tr ...

Updated: Aug 04, 2009 9:36pm PST

Argentina : In May 2006, I performed at the Gran Rex Theater in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Many of these shots were taken in and around the venue. The rest were taken while walking around the city.

In May 2006, I performed at the Gran Rex Theater in Buenos Aires, Arge ...

Updated: Mar 11, 2008 12:40pm PST

Nicaragua : "I began to ask him (Daniel Ortega, who later became Predsident of Nicaragua) about his writing, but he seemed embarrassed by my questions. 'In Nicaragua,' he said, 'everybody is considered to be a poet until he proves to the contrary.'" -Salman Rushdie, "The Jaguar Smile." In Nicaragua, nothing is more sacrosanct than poetry and baseball. I have displayed poems by Nicaraguans beneath several of these photos. My own poem on Nicaragua can be found in the writings section of this website, in the gallery called "Lorca's Mirror."

I contacted poet/priest/former Minister of Culture/field chaplain for the Sandinista National Liberation Front, Ernesto Cardenal, but we were not able to meet to talk as I had hoped. While Reagan trained and financed the Contras to murder Nicaraguan civilians, Cardenal was establishing poetry workshops for both the police and citizens, bringing literacy to half a million people.

I will never be able to forget my first night in Granada, the most vibrantly colorful and possibly the most beautiful city I've seen. The rain had turned the streets, already flowing with oxen-pulled carts, into rivers of mud and the rooftops into successions of waterfalls. I thought I heard gunshots in every direction, smoke filled the streets...it sounded like the city was at war...until I realized that children, unable to wait another week to celebrate their independence from Spain, were running all over the city setting off firecrackers. They reverberated through a nearby cathedral like cannons at point blank range, competing with a brass band that wailed as the city marched around the interior of the church behind the priest singing and clapping...old men on saxophones screaming with joy, kids on marching bass drums and cymbals...

I will not forget Victor, whom I befriended when he stopped me from turning down a dangerous street, and wound up pedalling me on his handlebars all around the city, eventually taking me in a boat to some of the islands of Lake Nicaragua. Later, he invited me to his family's neighborhood (where everywhere you looked kids were sniffing and selling glue) to show me his father's house, made of stacked cinderblocks on dirt floors, with walls made of paper hung from the scrap metal roof. They had no electricity...it was pitch black...I moved and spoke amongst shadows of people who, despite their poverty, offered me the most expensive things in their home: a pair of binoculars and a book (I came to learn this is typical of Nicaraguan hospitality)...

Nor will I forget crawling through the lava-carved underground caves of Masaya, choking on volcanic vapors and brushing my face against vines in the darkness which served as perches for bats whose wings skirted my cheeks. Human skin, hair, and bottles with unidentifiable dark liquids are regularly found in certain parts of the caves...evidence that local brujas still perform witchcraft here.

"I began to ask him (Daniel Ortega, who later became Predsident of Nic ...

Updated: Mar 12, 2008 12:29pm PST

Austria : Just after walking over 500 miles from France to Portugal (documented above in the "Spain" gallery), I flew directly to Vienna and performed at Donauinselfest in June 2006. These photos were taken in various parts of the city.

Just after walking over 500 miles from France to Portugal (documented ...

Updated: Mar 21, 2007 3:44pm PST

The Somerset : The Somerset is a "mobile" restaurant started by myself and two other friends (Dan Reighley: head chef, Jay Sengstock: sommelier) specializing in multi-course French style meals with wine and ale pairings for each course.

The Somerset is a "mobile" restaurant started by myself and two other ...

Updated: Jun 16, 2005 7:38pm PST

Canada :

Updated: May 15, 2007 8:27pm PST

The Autumns: Recording "Self-Titled" 2001 : Shot at a variety of studios in Los Angeles.

The Autumns: Recording "Self-Titled" 2001

Shot at a variety of studios in Los Angeles.

Updated: Sep 22, 2006 5:09pm PST

The Autumns Video Shoot : Shots I took on the set of the first video from our new record. Directed by our long-time fried Piper Ferguson. Los Angeles, July 2007.

The Autumns Video Shoot

Shots I took on the set of the first video from our new record. Direc ...

Updated: Aug 05, 2009 12:00am PST

Moi : Photos others have taken of me.

Photos others have taken of me.

Updated: Aug 28, 2009 11:44pm PST

Documentary : The following photographs are from a documentary I am currently making, which will be completed by the summer of 2009. They are a combination of stills taken directly from footage I've shot, and production photographs I took during the making of the film.

A handful of brief, rough clips from the film can be viewed in the "Film" section of this site.

Interviews with some of the artists featured in my film can be read, and in some cases viewed, in the "Interviews" section of this site.

For those of you interested in investigating these artists further, website links have been provided with each photograph.

The following photographs are from a documentary I am currently making ...

Updated: Mar 03, 2009 10:08pm PST

Midsummer :

Updated: Mar 19, 2008 7:45pm PST

Friends :

Updated: Mar 03, 2009 9:55pm PST

Isabelle's Corsica Photos :

Isabelle's Corsica Photos

Updated: Nov 26, 2007 8:29am PST

Makin' A Movie : All photographs which I appear in were taken by Justice Constantine.

Some of the other photographs were taken by me.

San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, and Half Moon Bay, California. July - August 2008.

All photographs which I appear in were taken by Justice Constantine. ...

Updated: Nov 29, 2008 1:55pm PST

Portraits, Weddings, etc. : Los Angeles. September 2008.

Portraits, Weddings, etc.

Los Angeles. September 2008.

Updated: Mar 22, 2009 5:36am PST

Australia :

Updated: Jul 04, 2009 1:06am PST

March - April 2009 : Slovakia, Czech Republic, France, and New York. March - April 2009.

March - April 2009

Slovakia, Czech Republic, France, and New York. March - April 2009.

Updated: May 07, 2009 7:48pm PST

Elkins 30th Birthday :

Elkins 30th Birthday

Updated: Jul 04, 2009 1:41pm PST

Hibbleton Slideshow :

Hibbleton Slideshow

Updated: Aug 04, 2009 9:25pm PST

Regensburg :

Updated: Jul 22, 2009 10:24am PST

Alaska : To view a video teaser I made pertaining to my work in Alaska, go to: http://elkins.smugmug.com/Film/Documentary/2549727_CAbAB

To view a video teaser I made pertaining to my work in Alaska, go to: ...

Updated: Sep 03, 2009 10:04pm PST

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