“In the era of big brains, anything that can be done, will be done, so hunker down.” —Kurt Vonnegut, Galápagos

Hey gang,

I can’t believe it’s August already. This year is really flying by—and boy has it been swell. Hey remember when there was that virus, Covid-Something, spreading across the globe and threatening the health of humanity, the global economy, and life as we know it on earth?

What’s that?

Oh it’s still a thing? It hasn’t gone away?

But the lockdown is over right?

Oh, we’re still in phase 4.5?

But America is beating the virus right?

Oh, other countries have opened up but we’re still seeing spikes?

Well Indiana is going to be back on track!

What? We just experienced one of the highest positive test days since the outbreak?

Well I’m sure all the big brains in our society will figure this out. No worries. Carry on.

I started this year off with the goal of publishing five photo books. That’s a pretty lofty goal, but you have to aim at something right?

My first book, People Eating: Vol. 1, (not for sale) sold a whopping 0 (zero) copies. As of this writing, it’s one of my best selling 2020 books of this year.

Enter my second book:

Hunker Down: Photos During The Lockdown By Tim (Me)

“I wasn’t an active photographer on September 11th, 2001. In fact, I had broken my only camera, a 35mm point & shoot, in the spring of that year. Still, I have this image in my mind of the cars lining up to panic buy gas. I have snapshots of a teary eyed math teacher, wheeling in a television set, so the classroom could watch the news unfold. Ask any photographer and they’ll give you a list of photos they failed to take.” —Excerpt from Hunker Down

Obviously—this book wasn’t on my mind when I first began thinking of the five books I wanted to publish in 2020. So you can count this one as a bonus. After all, don’t we all need another reminder that we’re living in a pandemic?

You might be asking yourself—but Tim, who wants to buy a book about the pandemic when we’re still living in the pandemic? To which I would reply with my usual sales pitch, “if you run out of toilet paper, my books are made from highly absorbent materials!”.

“If you run out of toilet paper, my books are made from highly absorbent materials!” —Excerpt from this Blog

“As documentary photographers, we don’t wish for tragedy, but we do seek it out. It’s our job as storytellers to—well—find a story to tell. Then in the spring of 2020, I found one. My story was a world event, painted on the streets of a small rural town.” —Excerpt from Hunker Down

Like many of my fellow togs, I saw the pandemic as an opportunity to document history. It’s not very often that you live through a historical moment, until you look back and realize that the past is history. Anyways—I don’t mean to write in such a nonsensical way—but nonsense seems to be en vogue these days.

“A lot of photographers will make a book about the pandemic, none of them will be like mine.” —Tim, Excerpt from this Blog

My version of the pandemic is told through the perspective of my two dogs—Charliehicks & Margot Beauregard.

“When the pandemic spread across America, Noble County was one of the first places in Indiana to have a confirmed case. Just like that, the virus was in our hospital, our nursing homes, our streets, our back yards. When the lockdown was ordered, I made it my goal to document all that I could.” —Excerpt from Hunker Down

Many of the photos were taken while on walks with my dogs or bike rides with my wife.

Hunker Down is a very personal story, with glimpses of our life at home, along with evidence of the pandemic in our rural Indiana town. I also threw in a few photos that I was able to grab while risking my life to buy toilet paper.

Like all of my photo books—my aim isn’t to make money—my goal is to send a little paper airplane out into the universe. Someday, maybe enough of these will spread out into the world and leave some sort of evidence that I existed. I made this book as inexpensive as possible in order to cover the costs that go into designing & producing.

“Americans tolerated the lockdown just about as long as the chalk lasted on the sidewalks. Soon, the virus became a politicized point of contention. If you thought about sharing your opinion online, be prepared for a metaphorical pepper spray to the face. Instead of uniting around a common enemy, which was the case on 9/11, we used the virus as a means to wrap our keyboards around each other’s throats.” —Excerpt from Hunker Down

Hunker Down is an 8×10 photo book filled with 84 pages of color and black & white images. This is my photo diary of the pandemic, through the lens of a rural Indiana couple and their two beloved dogs. Yes, the world was a fearful and uncertain place during the lockdown—but we had each other. 

You can purchase Hunker Down Here

Thank you for your support, be safe, and be kind.

“Those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it. Yet those who do study history, are doomed to stand by helplessly while everyone else repeats it.” —Tom Toro, Cartoonist