Tim Gruber and Jenn Ackerman use both photography and video to tell stories for editorial and commercial clients. 
“Individually we are one drop. Together we are an ocean.”
At times it’s easy to lose sight of just how therapatic the camera for me can be. It’s easy to get caught up in the chase of being photographer. Sometimes you feel like you can never catch up.
These photos for me are my way of breathing in the warm salty air and letting my mind get lost in the echoes of the waves crashing. I look at them today and I’m taken back to the warm ocean air and feel the cool sand on my bare feet. It’s just me, a camera, the powerful Atlantic and not a thought racing through my head.
Perhaps John F. Kennedy said it best though.
I really don’t know why it is that all of us are so committed to the sea, except I think it is because in addition to the fact that the sea changes and the light changes, and ships change, it is because we all came from the sea. And it is an interesting biological fact that all of us have, in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it we are going back from whence we came.
One of the most visually stimulating things I have photographed since moving to Minnesota was the Eelpout Festival in Walker, MN.
The festival that celebrates ice fishing is 3 hours north of Minneapolis in Walker, MN. People have called it Mardi Gras on Ice. About 14,000 people crowd on a lake, build ice houses, bars, dance clubs and fish for Minnesota’s version of spring break. Even though the numbers were way down this year, this town’s Spring Break on Ice lived up to its name.
Before we moved to Minneapolis, we were given an enormous amount of survival tips. Some people told us to escape winter altogether and go to warm Arizona like our Snowbird friends. Others said to buy woolly socks and hunker down. And a lot of people told us that the only way to survive winter in the Upper Midwest is to just enjoy it. We took that to heart.
Since moving here, we have learned how to ice skate, bought a closet full of winter clothes and a 10 pound box of hand warmers, and have throughly enjoyed the winter. In fact, as the snow begins to melt we are already mourning our outings to the rink near our house.
I say this now that it is a little warmer. I wasn’t singing the same tune when it was -20 degrees windchill and I couldn’t focus my camera because my fingers had frozen. I now have a greater appreciation for large format photography. Almost every weekend Tim and I ventured out in the coldest weather of the year in the coldest part of the country and made photos. Here are some photos from my first winter in Minnesota.
The new year has started at a great pace for me with an incredible portion of my time dedicated to shooting. I recently spent more time working on my favorite little island off the coast of North Carolina. Over a few weeks I burnt through nearly 50 rolls of film during what is the off-season on the island. The off-season also happens to be my favorite time to spend on the Outer Banks. With the island free of tourists it’s easier to get lost in your thoughts and become totally immersed in your work.
Enjoy these latest scans:
Here are a few more scans from my project focusing on the island of the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
This project for me has been a great escape in may ways. Given the location of the project, an island, it’s allowed me to isolate myself and given me a focus. With that it has simplified things and given myself and my photography a needed breathe of fresh air. More than any project in the past this project has been driven mainly by my curiosity and a desire to get the know the island beyond the mileposts(17.5 for those of you who know the OBX) I’m comfortable with.
I finally caught up with scanning so look for an edit of this body of work on our website soon. In the meantime here are a few images.
This month I began my voyage into the world of large format photography and it’s changed how I work. In doing so I have introduced myself to a realm of photography I never knew and its exciting and exhilarating. The 4×5 has allowed me to slow down and get to know people’s faces better. By necessity the camera makes it ok to stare at my subjects and study them. It allows me to take in every detail of the person I am photographing.
When I am shooting a multimedia project with motion and sound, all of my senses are heightened. I take in every sound, watch every movement and observe everything that is going on around me.
But when I put the drape over me, everything shuts off except for the person in the frame. I am oblivious to sounds or the people around me - all I see is the person in front of me. I am fully engaged in who they are like I never have before. I study their face, their expression and I am aware of every wrinkle, the shape of their eyes and the way they hold their hands.
Its much like putting on blinders. My attention is narrow and more focused. So while some of my senses are denied when I go under the drape, others are taken to all new levels.
Here are some photos from my first project with the 4×5 on sunbathers.
The Island is an on-going project documenting life on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The long and narrow string of barrier islands for many is a vacation destination.
For me it is much more. It is a place where I fell in love, married and am now trying to discover the peculiar qualities that make me so fascinated by this skinny strip of land sitting out in the Atlantic.
The Island is my connection to a place that like the tide has its highs and lows. Home to fishermen, surfers, beach bums, and retirees this is the beginning of what will be a life-long documentation of an ever changing island.
A few scans from the project. Look for a lot more in the near future.
I received an email today from an inmate that was in the psychiatric unit at the time I photographed my project Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons. Often we forget that those we are photographing are honored to share their story. Here is the email:
Dear Jenn,
I was an inmate at the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange, and I was in the CPTU when you were making the documentary. I wanted to express my appreciation for the great job you’ve done helping to inform people about mental illness in the prison system. I watched the video you have on your website, and it was excellently created and produced.Things are getting better for those of us who suffer from mental illness, and a lot of it is thanks to the work of people like you.
Thanks again
An image from Trapped: Mental Illness in Prison
To see more from the project, click here.
The Land of 10,000 Lakes has been a way for me to connect with the water in Minnesota. Water makes up much of Minnesota. It’s coastline is more than that of the states of California, Florida and Hawaii combined.
Minnesota is my new home and this project has given me an opportunity to explore one of the reasons we chose to move to Minnesota – it’s vast number of lakes. Growing up in Virginia Beach, my life was always tied to water and deciding to move to the Midwest was one of the hardest decisions I have made. Minnesota’s lakes have allowed me to bridge my life on the East Coast with my new life in the Midwest.
This project is a way for me to explore what the water means to me and the people of Minnesota.
A few more photos from my time reconnecting with my home state of Minnesota. After being in Vegas for the majority of August working and shooting digitally I am excited to be back home and shoot some more film for this project especially at the great Minnesota get-together next week.
You can read more about the project and see more photos in my earlier blog post.
