ECAD 2016
My 2nd year photographing explorers, adventurers and their benefactors at the glamorous Explorers Club Annual Dinner, held this year at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.
Richard and Laetitia are famous for dressing up in full outrageous outfits, and each year I look forward to photographing them.
Video game developer Richard Garriott de Cayeux is also known by his alter egos, Lord British in Ultima and General British in Tabula Rasa. A well-known figure in the video game industry, Garriott de Cayeux was originally a game designer and programmer, but now engages in various aspects of computer game development and business. He’s dressed here as Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, a mythological figure who is featured in a body of legends tracing back to the period of the Song dynasty.
C. William “Bill” Steele is a lifelong cave explorer who is preparing to lead an ambitious expedition to southern Mexico. The expedition, made up of cave explorers and scientists from five countries, totaling 45 people, will spend five weeks in a remote, mountainous part of Oaxaca, where native curanderos still conduct mystical pre-Hispanic magic mushroom ceremonies to commune with spirits.
Kari Hyer spent 36 months in Antarctica (late 80′s-mid 90′s) – including a winter at both South Pole and McMurdo Station, her intention with this dress (designed by Cindy Ciarcia) was to honour Sir Ernest Shackleton – 2016 is the 100th anniversary of the end of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition. I felt it fitting, especially considering the evenings theme. Most practically, she expressed her wish to stay warm! A trained Biologist she’s had a lifelong passion for exploring nature and it’s relationships. Randy (Randall) Hyer calls himself a ‘medical explorer’. He was the 40th winter over Medical Officer at McMurdo Station, Antarctica, ’94-’95. Randy has consulted with NASA using the Antarctic as an analogue for deep space missions, he helped pioneer the practical application of Telemedicine in remote areas and is a leading world expert in Risk and Crisis communication. He drafted the first comprehensive privacy legislation bill. Technically, he was a member of the Outbreak/Response team and the first full time civil military liaison at WHO.
David Gruber, the evening’s keynote speaker, a marine biologist, professor, National Geographic emerging explorer, and a recognized world authority in marine biology. His recent work includes the discovery and study of bioluminescent and biofluorescent marine animals, which are the subject of an upcoming 3-D IMAX film.
A highlight of my yearly coverage, Alexandra Covert is responsible for the giant logistical network that dresses all the Louis Vuitton window displays around the world and takes a keen interest in exploration. Every year she’s one of my favourite subjects, always managing somehow to exactly work with my theme of set-design. It’s as if we coordinated it before hand.
Internationally recognized exotic food expert Gene Rurka oversees the world-famous menu for the yearly gala. The food theme this year was “invasive species.” He’s pictured here with a deep-fried boa constrictor. Other items on the menu included deep-fried tarantulas, sautéed cockroaches, and many other invasive species. Rurka’s work is an integral part of what makes the club’s annual event so special. Seeing the passion in his eyes as he talks about earth’s food future is inspiring. Hint: it includes lots and lots of insects.
This year’s The William Beebe Award recipient Dr Joe MacInnes was the first scientist to dive under the north pole Joe is a medical doctor who’s pioneering research on undersea science and engineering projects earned him his nation’s highest honor—the Order of Canada. He’s worked under the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Gillian Driscoll works in the music industry and, like many others in attendance, has a passion for exploration without being an explorer herself. She’s wearing a mermaid-inspired outfit with a headpiece from the 1960s reminiscent of a starfish.
American marine biologist, explorer, author, and lecturer Sylvia Earle has been a National Geographic explorer-in-residence since 1998. Earle was the first female chief scientist of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and was named by Time magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998. She won the Explorers Club Medal in 1996, and has been an active member of the club for decades. In 2013, she received the esteemed National Geographic Hubbard Medal.
David Doubilet and Jennifer Hayes are both among the top underwater photographers in the world. They’ve both been shooting for National Geographic for decades. You’ve all seen their images.
Dr. S. Allen Counter is a professional explorer who has initiated scientific research and cultural studies among the indigenous people of the Suriname South American rain forest. His explorations led to over a decade of major articles on the little known rain forest descendents of 17th and 18th century African slaves, in a variety of international periodicals including Newsweek, Time, New York Times, Boston Globe, Smithsonian, Dagens Nyheter (Sweden), Expressen (Sweden), as well asscientific journals.
Vintage fashion aficionada Colleen Manassa Darnell (wearing a Bill Gibb gown) is an Egyptologist with the Yale Peabody Museum and the University of Hartford, who is concentrating her current fieldwork on the exploration of a group of Late Roman “lost cities” that she and her expedition have discovered on ancient routes through the Eastern Desert of Egypt.
Ann Curry is an American television personality, news journalist and photojournalist. Curry has been a reporter for more than 30 years, focused on human suffering in war zones and natural disasters. Curry has reported from the wars in Syria, Darfur, Congo, the Central African Republic, Kosovo, Lebanon, Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq, among others. Curry has covered numerous disasters, including the tsunamis in Southeast Asia and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, where her appeal via Twitter topped Twitter’s ‘most powerful’ list, credited for helping speed the arrival of humanitarian planes.
Justin “Baron” Fornal is an explorer and filmmaker currently working on the National Geographic Explorer series. His newest expedition documents and repurposes indigenous textile production and dyeing techniques from around the world. The fabric of his outfit is from a traditional posahuanco made in Pinotepa de Don Luis, Mexico, and dyed using purpura snails (purple), cochineal (red), and indigo (blue). It is from the first stop of his fabrics expedition, showcasing vanishing ancient textile production techniques.
Evva Fenison was on Explorers Club Flag Expedition #216, where she explored a Bioflourescent reef in Indonesia.
With thanks to Hunter Arthur, Alex Schaefer, Chaunna Michole, Agata Domanska, Carolina Antorim, Theodore Collatos, Christine Dennison, Ariel Field, Katie Losey, Bill & Sharyn Runyon, Eric Zember, Will Roseman, Mary-Anne Potts, William Haviland and everyone else at the club.