Over the space of 5 years Jesses Burke went on several road trips with his daughter and photographed their journey and her experiences with nature for his series ‘Wild & Precious’. He states on his website:
‘Wild & Precious brings together treasures from a series of road trips traveled with my daughter to explore the natural world. I use these adventures to encourage a connection between my child and nature and to give her an education that I consider essential—one that develops appreciation, respect, conservation, and self-confidence. On the road we talk about the vastness of nature and try to get more in touch with the earth. Together we document the routes we drive, the landscapes we discover, the creatures we encounter, even the roadside motels where we sleep. Wild & Precious reveals the fragile, complicated relationship that humans share with nature and attempts to strengthen those bonds.’
A lot of his images from their road trips are so striking with such crisp and harrowing back drops and his young daughter, exploring and learning, being swallowed up by the vast landscapes in which she’s surrounded by. It’s a beautiful insight into the relationship between Father, Daughter and nature, demonstrated throughout the 134 images in the series. It’s also interesting to see his daughter grow as she explores and climbs, yet how she returns to her childhood innocence through his images of her sleeping in the various cheap motels they stayed in on their journeys.
He also created what can only be described as one of the most beautiful short films I’ve ever seen, adding to the documentation of their journey and showcasing his love for his daughter and for her to experience everything the natural world has to offer.
I really like the idea of creating a series for the home brief in a similar way in which Jesse Burke created ‘Wild & Precious’ in the sense that I’d like to document over the course of 7-10 days what home means to me by photographing a rare week back in Nottingham with my family.
Jesse Burke‘s main website: http://www.jesseburke.com/welcome
Section about the series on his website about the series, in which the quote I’ve used came from: http://www.jesseburke.com/wildandprecious
Vice interview with Jesse about the series: http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/striking-tender-photos-of-a-father-daughter-road-trip
Website in which you can find the film if the link I’ve put in doesn’t work properly: http://www.wildandprecious.co/film
A large portion of the series can be found here: http://www.wildandprecious.co/photographs
