The first one being the week Angie and I got married. If someone would have told me in January that by mid October my photographs would be seen in 155 countries and written by 50+ journalists (that approached me about using the work) I would have laughed hysterically at the thought.
This viral distribution of Removed started because of the genuine interest in the project by my friend Andrew Stern who does brilliant work at Business Insider. In early October he texted me out of the blue saying he wanted to write about Removed and I excitedly agreed to do an interview with him. He wrote such an honest piece, pulling out the threads of the work that spoke to him the most and consequently the way that I hoped the images were functioning. After the first day the story went live, it had over 2,500 views (something that would have taken well over a month for my personal website to have achieved) and I was delighted. By day 3, the piece had over 50,000 unique viewers. Before I knew it, on Monday night after doing an interview with CNN Digital, (which was this surreal out of body experience) the project was everywhere and the media frenzy began.
I woke up Tuesday morning with an avalanche of emails from countries all across the globe asking for permission to write about and distribute the work. I did my best to answer every email, media request, and thank you message, while also building this site and trying to follow through with the tasks that my everyday life asked of me. By Thursday morning I had slept less than 12 hours the entire week, my house was in shambles, and I knew I could no longer keep this rolling on my own.
After a few conversations and recommendations I made an agreement with the absolutely amazing Julie Grahame to keep this ship on course. She's a real life saver and even jumped into this head first and on her anniversary of all days. I am incredibly grateful!
Besides a few short interviews, I'm excited to take a little break this weekend, be with my family, and recharge in preparation of the things to come next week.
Thank you so much for being a part of this wild ride and for supporting Removed.