In April of 2014, when Hawkeye Huey was four years old, his father (National Geographic photographer Aaron Huey) bought him his first camera. Over the next 18 months the two made a series of adventures, traveling together around the American West making photographs, meeting strangers, chasing light, and learning how to see. They climbed Salvation Mountain, went into the chutes at the Cody Night Rodeo, visited the markets of the Navajo Nation, and cruised the Las Vegas strip. Between the ages of four and five Hawkeye took nearly a thousand instant photos. Many of those photographs and their journey were shared on an Instagram account created for Hawkeye. Now in the hands of his father, these photographs will become a book.
It began simply enough: a father and son going on their first big trip away from Mom. They headed from Seattle, to the Salton Sea in Southern California, to make (and sleep), in blanket forts in the desert. On the drive south Aaron bought Hawkeye an analog camera, like the cameras of his own youth. He chose that camera partly out of nostalgia for film and the scarcity of physical images today, but also because he didn’t want to see a four-year-old learn about making photographs by holding his finger on the touchscreen of an iPhone (until the device was filled with hundreds of photos of nothing).
He wanted to find a way to slow down the process. To make each frame mean something. To make it about meeting people, for each frame to become an interaction. And so it was.
Aaron and Hawkeye’s adventures have earned international recognition: for both the collection of photography and for the lessons of this father-son adventure in creative and engaged parenting.
The Instagram account they used to share this journey has well over 100,000 followers, and Hawkeye has been named to Rolling Stone’s top 100 Instagramers, and Time magazine’s 50 Instagram accounts to follow, and his photos have inspired online stories from National Geographic Proof to the Huffington Post.
“Hawkeye has a unique and captivating perspective” [Rolling Stone]
“No doubt, Hawkeye has a bright future in photography ahead of him.” [TIME]
Given the essential role that physical experience and media played in this project, it is only fitting that its final manifestation should be in a physical form as well.
In that first set of photos Hawkeye laid out on the floor of a tent camp we could see a series of images filled with flaws, and smiles, and with body parts cut off. The images were neither perfectly sharp, nor were they able to be blown up to eight feet wide for maximum effect in a gallery. Hawkeye’s images were not yet influenced by Robert Frank, William Eggleston, Stephen Shore, or Bill Allard.
Though Hawkeye created without influence, his father has very consciously placed this collection of images alongside a long list of legends in the well-trodden tradition of documenting the American West. Hawkeye has no concept of that, nor does he need to. He does not participate in those aesthetic debates or judgements. He doesn’t have a history and he doesn’t have an influence. He is busy with Legos. We hope that this collection of his images and the journey he took with his father will help you to see the genius of the creative vision that is inherent in all children.
Soon, if all goes as planned, you will be holding this book in your hands. You will smell it’s crisp pages and fresh ink. It will become dented and worn after years of being passed from hand to hand, and if you color on it with crayons, it won’t wipe off.
Through the creation of COWBOYS INDIANS HOBOS GAMBLERS PATRIOTS TOURISTS & SUNSETS, Aaron and Hawkeye will close out this project so that they may move onto the next:Future Machines. What exactly is a Future Machine you ask? Stay tuned . . . after this project funds, you just might find out.
This is first and foremost an effort to publish and share this book and this vision for teaching children. This is not a fundraiser for Hawkeye Huey. That said, if the goal if far surpassed, then the proceeds that reach beyond Outsider’s operations costs (design, editing, printing, storage, shipping, assembly, and contractor work for web, social, and fulfillment of these orders, etc, ) will go into an untouchable account for Hawkeye Huey’s future education and creative endeavors.
AND If we make our stretch goal of $250,0000 we will hire an engineer and/or scientist to build a “Future Machine” of Hawkeye’s design & choosing that is ACTUALLY FUNCTIONAL.
COWBOYS INDIANS HOBOS GAMBLERS PATRIOTS TOURISTS & SUNSETS
Hawkeye is now five years old. He likes to draw catapults & build Lego spaceships & karate chop random sticks in the backyard. He just started kindergarten, and is already pretty good at math. Last year he signed a contract to became National Geographic Creative’s youngest photographer ever. This will be his first book.
Aaron Huey is a National Geographic Photographer (having shot 27 stories for NG publications), a Harper’s Magazine Contributing Artist, and a Stanford d.School 2015/16 Media Designer. He is also a wearer of Gold Shoes, a Climber of Rocks, a Father, a Husband, and a Maker.
Huey is widely known for his 3,349 mile, solo walk across America (with his dog Cosmo). The 2002 journey lasted 154 days. There was no media coverage. They walked everystep. Following the walk Huey took a 2 1/2 year hiatus from shooting photos to build an artist in residence program (Hueyhaus), from the ground up, on the Pecos River east of Santa Fe.
Huey’s previous books include Mitakuye Oyasin (All My Relations) by Radius Books, and Where The Heaven Flowers Grow: the Life and Art of Leonard Knight by Outsider Books. His work is represented by Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles.
Outsider Books was founded in 2014 by Aaron Huey and Ali Geiser with the dedicated purpose of transcending both time & space. They operate out of a cedar shed in Seattle and a garage in the Rocky Mountains, and their limited and trade edition books include art by the likes of Leonard Knight and Shepard Fairey.
Perhaps you are not going to buy your copy of COWBOYS INDIANS HOBOS GAMBLERS PATRIOTS TOURISTS & SUNSETS today. Please don’t let that stop you from sharing this project with your friends, family, and community! BIG THANKS AND MUCH LOVE!
www.outsiderbooks.com/projects/hawkeyehuey