A little photography project created collaboratively with Miki Johnson when she was in New Orleans. She explains the project and the process best on her post about the project, but here’s my take. Images and sounds from around town, so turn the volume on.

Miki Johnson and I drove around New Orleans on a beautiful post-Jazz Fest day a couple weeks ago, talking about photography, blogging and simple and deep joys of creating. So we created a little project from the day, moments of our day, captured in sound and images, combined in the slidecast above.

In her post about the project, Miki explains the background behind the project, the process, and the conversation we had after we we started putting the project together: what we did, what struck us, what worked and what didn’t.

When Miki first asked me about doing a little collaborative project, it was easy to say yes. Miki’s a smart, thoughtful and creative person with a deep understanding of photography and the photography industry, but she’s also someone that lives “the conscious life”, as I often call it. She’s taking a sabbatical at the moment, creating, learning and living, and I’m interested in seeing what other collaborative projects she creates along the way.

And it reminded me: this can’t be the last collaborative project I have with people that I meet and visit throughout the world, here at home or on the road. I’m a near-expert at exploring on my own, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned the hard way, it’s that sharing the experiences creates something far more powerful, lasting and meaningful than pushing ahead on one’s own.

And for that, thank you. Thank you Miki; thank you Jeremy; thank you Tom; thank you Sloane and Carl; thank you, everyone.

Let’s keep creating :)

Announcing a mini-project One Walk, a collaboration with my friend Kiarash Kazemi, highlighting how two photographers can see the same world through different perspectives.

Over and Under, Kiarash Kazemi & Taylor Davidson, London, England

One Walk

Click here to view the rest of the images from One Walk.

We may walk the same earth, but we take different paths. Two people can be in the same place and experience it far differently, overlaps of place but divergences of the mind. Our perceptions are our realities.

Put two photographers in the same place, and they’ll often see their environment far differently. My friend Kiarash Kazemi and I tested this on a recent walk in London, England, and I decided to illustrate the idea by showing a snippet of the different images we made from the day.

Please note: this is not a competition, but a showcase of two people’s creative expression of how they each experienced the day. One walk, different perspectives.

Click here to view the complete One Walk mini-project.

Onward, Palmer, Alaska, 2006

It’s hard to get anything in life unless you ask for it; so here I am, asking. I’m looking for a challenge to focus on and commit to for the next three to six months with a group of great people, and I would love your help.

I’m looking for a challenge.
I’ve spent the past couple years creating challenges for myself, pushing myself to learn, to create and grow. And I’ve loved it: I’ve met, shared ideas with and learned from a ton of great, interesting people. I’ve gotten involved in a lot of great conversations. I’ve gotten involved in a range of very divergent projects.

But carrying on a ton of concurrent, divergent conversations and projects is distracting, personally unfulfilling and professionally limiting: it’s activity without accomplishment. I’ve realized that I need to get involved with a group of people to focus on a challenge to focus my mind and passion and help create and deliver something truly meaningful. Accomplishment, not just activity.

Here’s how you can help.
I’d love your help in finding and connecting me with challenges and people: propose ideas, pass this invitation to other people in your networks, contact me about projects I can help on, or help however you can. I’m appealing to the power of serendipity to open opportunities: but I recognize it’s up to me to deliver results.

Feel free to contact me privately by email or publicly through the comments or Twitter.

Here’s what I’m looking to do.
Details and guidelines:

• What I want to do: I want to work on something that matters, on something I can care about with a group of great people.

  I know that’s vague, but I’ve got a lot of potential paths swimming through my head: helping a startup define and launch their company, helping a venture capitalist evaluate investments and structure deals, helping a company on product innovation projects, help execute a product launch, shoot an in-depth photojournalism project, start my “alt-PhD”, learn to hack, assist a photographer, help film a travel documentary, etc.

  Nothing there should be a surprise to anyone that has read either of my sites or talked to me over the past couple of years; and yes, I acknowledge that list is incredibly broad: but at its core, it’s about finding a challenge that excites both sides of the brain, that leverages my ability to import and export ideas, that requires me to be analytical and creative.

  I readily acknowledge that I have a lot to learn, thus I consider this a trade of skills, passion and time for opportunity and education.

• How I can help: Business strategy and financial modeling, marketing and product innovation, online and offline; I’ve worked in consumer financial services and wireless telecommunications, strategy consulting and private equity; I’ve helped many entrepreneurs refine ideas and develop strategies; I’m a natural “red cell”, passionate about asking questions, learning, creating and reframing conventions. For specifics on formal education and work experience, check out my resume; for examples of my informal education and interests, check out both of my websites taylordavidson.com and unstructuredventures.com.
• Timeline: duration of 3-6 months, and I’d like to start in a couple weeks. Think of this as an “project” or an “alt-internship” around a near-term deliverable.
• Compensation: I’m more interested in working on something I care about than in making money. If you know me at all, or if you’ve heard me talk about my “freemium” life, then this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
• Geography: USA, abroad, doesn’t matter. Virtual or on-site, not terribly important. I’m fairly nomadic by nature and can move very quickly if needed. All I would ask for is help in finding a place to stay.

Thanks for your help! Rest assured I’ll fill you in on what I decide on doing…

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Updated: June 27: Vague details about the challenge I accepted and my upcoming travel plans.

Quiet | Reno, Nevada | Dec 2008

Where I Sleep is an addendum to My Cities 2008, a visual record of everywhere I slept in 2008. Admittedly, an image of an empty bed is a hackneyed cliche: but when in doubt, do it in a series, right?

Click here to view the mini-project “Where I Sleep”

(For more personal historical record keeping, check out My Cities 2006, My Cities 2007 and the “Drive-By” trip.)