My initial concept of the Taylor Camp project was architectural. That changed very quickly. I preferred doing environmental portraits and the campers wanted their pictures taken. But I still needed establishing architecture and landscapes, so I did those between portraits, usually setting up and then waiting for someone to walk into the frame to add motion and human scale.
“King Rosey. He gave away my house. This house has been mine already for a couple of months and I've been staying there off and on, but I still had my whole set-up in Hanakapiai. So, I decide to make a full move to camp and went back to Hanakapiai, loaded up all my stuff and it's like 9:00 at night and I got this heavy backpack on and I'm sweating like a pig. I'm stark naked. It's full-moon and I come up into my tree house and some dude's sleeping in my bed. I'm like, ‘Hey, what the fuck are you doing in my bed?’ and it's Bruce. He's like, ‘Oh, hey. Rosie gave me this house’. I'm like, ‘Well, fuck. You tell Rosie to kiss my ass. This is my fucking house. I've owned it for two months and Rick Preston gave it to me and I've been in line for four fucking years. You're out of here’. He's like, ‘Well, Rosie said I could have it’, and I'm like, ‘Rosie can kiss my ass. Get out of here’. That's the first time I met Bruce, but we're still brothers. I love him dearly, but – it was just like – ‘I've been in line – I don't know how long you've been here, dude, but I've been waiting for this house for three years and now it's mine’.” —Emee Erson