Interview

June 5. Millville, Pa.
We cleaned David's house thoroughly before we left. I picked up all the cigarette butts on the front steps and by the dock of the pond. I got everyone together and had a talk with them about putting the cigarette butts in their pockets or, if they're naked, giving them to me to put in my back pocket. It's bad karma to leave them in nature. We all piled into the van and hit the road to Millville, Pennsylvania. We had found this guy Kevin through the Weird Pennsylvania book. He had a chronic neck injury and claimed he had been cured by standing in crop circles at his farm. He sells Christmas trees and makes homemade tractors. It was dusk, my favorite time to shoot. Everything was illuminated by Christmas lights. I decided to shoot in his gazebo, and we turned on the iPod and blasted the Rolling Stones. The sky was a deep blue. Bryce and Hanna got on the handmade swing set. The creaking noise made it seem like it was going to fall to pieces any second. The bug zapper was killing flies left and right, and then we did a night fireworks shoot in the water. I always wonder what our hosts think when they see the shoots happening.

June 6. Raystown Lake, Pa.
We arrived at a rental house at Raystown Lake, Pennsylvania. I've been trying not to stress out about the budget for the trip this summer but always seem to be thinking about how much I'm spending every day. When you arrive somewhere new, you have to quickly figure out a plan of action. I walked around the property making notes. The back deck was the best place to shoot. It had a pastoral landscape, and the sun was about to set. We set up the stuntman fall mat below the deck so it would look like people were jumping into the distance. In the woods were six long benches. This house was often used for church youth groups. I guess that's where they give their sermons. I decided to do our own naked sermon. I had Jonas carry a chair out on top of his head to the benches to lead it. He sat nude and smoked cigarettes and told us Swedish prophecies while I took pictures. Then Christian, my first assistant, yelled that the fall mat was blown up. I did a few jumps off the deck to demonstrate the proper way to fall forward, on your ass and back. Jonas tried first to do it nude and bounced down the hill. It was a slow process, and I was getting nervous that we were losing light, so I stripped down and started to do falls: forward, backward, on my ass, flipping, spinning. I was trying to get everyone else psyched, and it seemed to work. Then everyone cooked a vegetarian dinner naked while I photographed them. The -interns set up the trampoline in the front of the house, and I did some -McGinley-style Muybridge studies of people bouncing and falling awkwardly while listening to "Sussudio" by Phil Collins.

June 9. Seneca Rocks, W. Va.
We drove the entire day to West Virginia, heading toward a tourist "show cave." A show cave is a cave that has turned commercial. I watched all the Taco Bells, Wal-Marts, Waffle Houses, Cracker Barrels, IHOPs, and Subways out the window. Surprisingly, I've seen more Subways than McDonald's. The GPS kept leading us in strange ways. I've come to realize that the GPS can be your best friend and worst enemy. As it got dark there were dozens of deer on the side of the highway. We arrived late at Red Oak, a house everyone thought was haunted. It was creaky and old and felt like a cult had once lived there. All the beds were arranged in the same way. It was all very Heaven's Gate.

June 10. Smoke Hole Cave, W.Va.
We went swimming in a river, then headed to Smoke Hole Cave. We purposely got there late to take the last tour. We didn't have permission to shoot nudes, so we were just going to wing it. Chris went into the office to talk to the woman about making "art photographs" that will be in museums and galleries. She said in her Southern accent, "I don't care 'bout art. We have fishing and hunting magazines that come and make photos on our land." Chris was persistent and convinced her to give us a private tour. She got one of the kids who works there to walk us through. He gave us the regular tour about moonshiners and the Native Americans who smoked meat in the cave. As we got farther into the cave, we asked if we could start shooting. Chris asked the guide, "You're okay with the photos being nude, right?" Hanna immediately took off her clothes. Girls-first always works. Then everyone else got naked. Jonas was walking around wearing a sailor hat and looking very Querelle. We stayed for about an hour making photos until the guide's shift was over. As we were exiting, Chris told the guide not to tell the owner it was a nude shoot. He kept saying he wanted to see her face when she found out. We gave him a big tip. As we arrived, the woman from the office pulled up to a screeching halt beside us. Jonas said in his Swedish accent, "Hi, how are you?" She was screaming, demanding the film. She got so crazy that Christian gave up five rolls out of the 15 we shot. Chris said, "I told you this was fine-art photography." She said, "That's not fine art. That's just gross."

June 12. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Tenn.
We scouted the area during the day. Once the sun was setting I started out doing trampoline studies. Since we had no property, we just set up the trampoline on the road in front of the house. Every time a car would drive by, we would throw a black sheet over whoever was naked. Then we walked up to an empty house with a backyard covered in leaves and did a fireworks shoot there. The fireworks produced an amazing amount of smoke, and we were worried someone might think the house was on fire. A car stopped, and we all hid. Since we were in the Great Smoky Mountains, our smoke could have been mistaken for fog. While driving the day before, I saw an amazing highway tunnel with a yellow glow that went through a mountain. I started getting ideas in my head as to how to pull off a nude shoot in it. We ended the night by driving down to the tunnel. It was late so there weren't many cars on the road, but that didn't mean there were none. Cops are especially out at night. We pulled up to the tunnel, and Bryce was ready, just wearing shorts. I asked Bryce to run back and forth through the tunnel a few times. On the second passing, two cars zoomed into the tunnel and scared the shit out of us. Life would be so much easier if I weren't shooting nudes in tunnels.

June 13. Clayton, Ga.
It's Friday the 13th. I've been out of contact with most everyone I'm friends with. It doesn't feel right to call people when you're on the road-it's nice just to get away from it all. We drove from Tennessee through Franklin, North Carolina, where almost exactly one year ago to the day my Volkswagen Eurovan died on the side of the highway. I thought I had died too and saw the light, but it was just the white powder from the airbag. We arrived at the Millhouse in Clayton, Georgia, and we were so happy to be at such a beautiful house. Two dogs ran up to us as we pulled in the driveway. Originally we were thinking of hitting up the closest drive-in, but all they were playing was Kung Fu Panda [2008]. We were going to offer them money to shoot nudes, but we found out it was a family drive-in and decided against it. I walked down the trail and all of a sudden hundreds of purple butterflies started flying in the air. It was so beautiful-just lavender butterflies, smaller than most, hovering over one flowered plant. I followed the pathway to a river that led to the waterfall, which seemed like the most logical place to shoot. I asked Jonas, since he's the most fearless. He looks like a frail, Swedish homosexual. In actuality he's the most undercover gangster ladies' man. We call him "Dude Looks Like a Lady." The way his body moves fascinates me. He got right under the waterfall without any direction and was almost reading my mind. The water was freezing, and he kept getting brain freezes. Then I took shots of Bryce outside the house. I refer to Bryce jokingly with my assistants as "my favorite model" or "my boyfriend." He's the one I photograph the most. Conlin and Hanna are amazing as well. I love all my children. Conlin's face is probably the most interesting I've ever worked with. I always think he's going to kill me, but he says that's just the way his mouth rests.

June 15. Charleston, S.C.
In the morning we embarked on a sailboat from a marina in Charleston, South Carolina. I saw dolphins and dove off the boat to swim with them. Over the course of an hour dark clouds moved in, and it turned gloomy. If there is one thing I've learned making pictures it's that rainy days can be the best days to shoot, so I shot while it poured on us. We couldn't go into the water because of lightning.

June 16. Augusta, Ga.
We woke up really early and drove to Augusta, Georgia. In the car I have a butterfly mask that belongs to my friend Lily, who modeled for me on my first cross-country trip, in 2005. She brought it along the first day and put it around the seat. She said it would bring us good luck. Lily overdosed in early 2007. She was the most fearless girl I've ever met. I suppose this is a quality I look for in all my models. I always think that she protects us from above on our journey.

June 19. On the road to Trenton, Ga.
We are going to Howard's Waterfall Cave, where some guy died after being overcome by fumes from a leaking gas-station line. After hearing that, I've -decided that if someone says, "Ryan, this seems dangerous," I'll say, "No, this seems adventurous." The directions were wrong and we were on a country road off the beaten track. I asked for directions from a local good old boy weed-whacking his lawn. He said he knew where it was but hadn't been there. He said the only time he would be going into the ground was when he was dead. We finally found the cave right off the side of the road, of all places. It was our first real cave. I was scared shitless crawling on my hands and knees and then having to slither on my belly to get to the bigger room. I instantly popped a Klonopin. My friend, pro skater Jerry Hsu, calls taking anxiety medicine "breaking the glass." I texted him that "I'm about to break the glass." Inside it was so beautiful and so scary!