Reflections on the start (only several weeks late)

It’s funny to think this fellowship only officially started four weeks ago. It began with an email informing us that we were awarded the Howarth-Wright Travel Fellowship, a four-month traveling scholarship focusing on the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. Ten days later, contracts were signed. The first couple of weeks were spent in Toronto fleshing out our proposal, and researching connections relevant to our research. We booked flights, established a budget, roughed out our schedule, researched gear, read what was available in the library, and met with professors (past and present) for advice.

Although we were investing hours each day into research, being in Toronto still felt like we were buying time, waiting to start moving. Even two weeks in Phoenix felt similar. Ironic, since these two weeks were spent actually working. We had the logistics: having my car serviced, finding a cargo box for the roof, buying roadside assistance, updating car insurance, updating the first aid kit, picking up maps, repairing the broken laptop, finding folders for receipts and brochures, checking camping gear, water-proofing the tent, buying camera gear and hard drives, testing camera gear and hard drives, picking up reference books and resources, and all the other minutia that just needed to get done. On top of that, we actually started our rephotography.

We spent hours reviewing the Pedro E. Guerrero archives at Arizona State University. We met with Victor Sidy, Dean of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. He toured us around with a gracious introduction Taliesin West. We were given visitors passes, introduced to as many people as possible (both for reference, and to avoid questioning as we roamed around later), and set free to discover and photograph the site. Four (long) days were spent shooting at Taliesin West, including one golden afternoon when we were granted access to the David & Gladys Wright House, and one entire day working with Elizabeth Dawsari reviewing the Library archives.

And now we’re on the road, five days into a three month trip. We’ve seen modernism and robots in Palm Springs, desolation at the Salton Sea, the (incredible) Salk Institute in San Diego, the Pacific Coast Highway towards Los Angeles, the Eames House, Mulholland Drive (our traffic aversion technique), Eric Owen Moss’ Culver City, and the Getty Center in LA.

Five days. Of seventy six.

(Here’s to posting and keeping track of it all.)