One of our favorite photographers and good friend, Emiliano Granado, recently launched his newest endeavor, Yonder Journal, with Daniel Pasley. This unique project combines several forms of visual imagery and narrative cataloguing into one impressive website.
“Yonder Journal is the exploration of American Frontiers and Western Principles. We are Cultural Anthropologists and Sportsmen compelled into the Wilderness to explore, document and publish a lasting and meaningful record of our experiences there.”
Yonder is producing a series of “guides cataloguing swimming holes, hot springs, primitive campsites, fire towers, wilderness areas and brovets; a collection of studies on adventure cycling, wildlife biology, pack-rafting, mountain hunting campaigns, rendezvous, randonnuering and ranching as well as various other pursuits, sportsmen and environments” additionally, Yonder will chronicle their experiences in the field through a series of briefs.
It has been a year since I last worked with Emiliano, I took a few minutes out of his busy day to ask him a few questions about this new project and about how he manages to accomplish so much while at the same time raising a family.
What was the biggest obstacle that you faced when trying to launch this project?
Funding. In order for this project to exist, it needs to be funded. The scope is too big for it to be 100% self funded. So we’ve had to convince people that it’s a worthwhile investment.
I was working with you last summer when this project was in its beginning phases. How has it transformed since then? Is it what you initially set out to create or has it warped into something new?
It’s basically the original vision. Things have been tweaked, but it’s always been a self published, underwritten project about the outdoors, frontiers, cultural studies, etc. This is a way to publish the projects we want to shoot without waiting for magazines to assign them to us.
Where do you see Yonder Journal in the next 5 years?
I hope to see it still publishing. I hope it becomes a platform for myself and many others to publish work that is deemed “unpublishable” by the publishing standards. I hope to see it become more analog. I hope to see it profitable. I hope it’s inspiring to tens of thousands of people.
How much of your work load does Yonder Journal occupy? Is it hard to find time to dedicate to this project?
Its around 50% of my time, probably. It’s hard to manage this and an editorial/commercial career. The goal is that YJ will create more commercial/editorial work, though.
You’ve always been very successful at combining projects together in order to make multiple stories / bodies of work. (I.E. when you shot the cruise trip for Budget Travel and then made a personal body and a newsprint publication) Have you been able to do this with Yonder Journal? Do you plan to utilize this ability with this project?
In many ways, I’ve been using editorial jobs to create personal work. With YJ, it’s kinda the other way around – I’m shooting personal work to get more paying jobs. YJ represents a way for me to shoot things exactly how I want to shoot them. There’s no compromising for the sake of a job or an editor.
Being a new dad means being at home right? Is it hard / frustrating to sacrifice traveling for time with the newborn?
SUPER HARD. Very VERY HARD.
Speaking of babes, how is little Queso? What’s fatherhood like?
It’s difficult. It’s riddled with guilt. It’s a logistical nightmare. But it’s wonderful too.
Can we expect to see some cool publications / newsprints from this project? You know we love tangibility!
FUCK YES. That is a project mandate. While YJ lives online mostly, the idea is that printed pieces and tangible material will always be the end product.
If you had to sell Yonder Journal in one sentence how would you do it?
Daniel did a great job with the Manifesto: Yonder Journal is the exploration of American Frontiers and Western Principles.
For more information about their project, check out their website.