Table of contents for Issue 64 - The Collaboration Issue in Huck

Adrian Morris left his home in Melbourne at 20 with no grand plan other than a burning urge to travel. He freewheeled around the globe, taking in Asia, South America, Europe and the US, teaching himself how to shoot along the way. “Photography has changed my life by developing the way I interpret and view the world,” says the 29-year-old. “It has exposed me to opportunities and memorable experiences that I have learned a great deal from – experiences that never would have happened otherwise. Travelling is the reason I became interested in photography. Exploring the unknown, interacting and understanding new cultures, people and surroundings is what influences my work.”…

BACK IN 1978, WHILE living in Oakland, photographer Ryan Weideman saw Midnight Express, a nerve-wracking film that tells the true story of Billy Hayes – a young American who, after being caught smuggling hashish, escapes from a Turkish jail and lives to tell the tale. “I thought, ‘If this guy can go through that, I am ready for New York!” Weideman says with a laugh. 1970s Manhattan was an outlaw town riddled with violence and crime. It became a magnet for fearless spirits who lived life on their own terms. Although Weideman had taken visual cues from film noir throughout his life, it was the work of photographers William Klein, Diane Arbus, Joel Meyerowitz and Robert Frank that made him aware that something spectacular was happening in New York. “I…

At a pair of converted shipping containers in Shoreditch, East London, queues are snaking out the door of CookDaily – a vegan restaurant that’s as unconventional as it is unlikely. Between the graffiti-adorned walls, old-school arcade machines and brightly coloured bowls of fusion food stands the mastermind behind it all: King Cook. Born Bounsou Senathit and raised in London, King’s parents cooked Thai food in pub kitchens across the city, where he’d help them out after school. “Coming from a South-East Asian background, food was a big part of our culture,” says King, dressed in all-black with a rolled-up beanie hat, as a packed-out lunch service gets underway. “I had a mature palette as a young’un – eating spicy food at five years old, eating fresh chillies at seven years…

Whenever Hedy Lamarr used to come home after a long day on set, she’d stay up all night. Back in the 1940s, actors would retire to bed with a studioissued sleeping pill – knocking them out before an ‘upper’ brought them back around. But Hedy Lamarr was different. She’d hover over her drafting table by lamplight, toying with test tubes or filling notebooks with ideas. “Any girl can be glamorous,” Hedy once said. “All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.” Yet over the course of an extraordinary career, Hedy was less known for her groundbreaking research and more for a life of controversy. It began when she starred in the first mainstream film to show sexual intercourse and a female orgasm, 1933’s Ecstasy. A scandal erupted…

IN THE 1970S, Edward Relph introduced us to the term ‘placelessness’ – the risk of reducing complex destinations and, by default, human beings and circumstances to generic ‘single stories’. Relph explains that in order to comprehend what it means to live on Earth – an experience often beyond our comprehension – we tend to generalise and “casually eradicate the distinction of places and the people in them”. Placelessness reminds us that when we grow up hearing only one story about a person or a place, we run the risk of limiting our understanding of that space or experience. The world cannot be simplified to a single narrative; our lives are composed from the interconnection of limitless stories, perspectives and journeys. Relph articulated that concept nearly 50 years ago, but at…

A juvenile humpback whale is captured post-breach just metres away from Michaela Skovranova, a Sydney-based photographer who spends much of her time submerged beneath the ocean. “My underwater work has been an incredibly challenging journey that encourages me to be more in tune with myself and the environment,” she says. “I enjoy the surprising nature of the ocean, the focus it requires and the silence of the mind that comes with it. We don’t often get to experience weightlessness and the limitation of some of our senses, so it truly feels like visiting a different kind of world. How you experience that world is tied to the headspace with which you enter the ocean - for me it generally brings stillness.”…

It’s always a good time to make music,” says Lee-Ann Curren. “Just like it’s always a good time to surf. It’s all intertwined and, for me, one doesn’t exist without the other.” The 28-year-old is not the first Curren to think in those terms. Her father Tom is the era-defining three-time World Champion of the 1980s and perhaps the most-loved pro surfer of all time. Her grandfather Pat, meanwhile, was one of the original bohemian pioneers of Hawaii’s North Shore and a living legend. Her uncle Joe is a well-respected photographer and a highly accomplished surfer in his own right. Lee-Ann, however, has blazed her own trail. Growing up in Biarritz to a family of Californians, as well as being a woman in a male-dominated industry, has allowed her to…

Baigalmaa Norjmaa is a 30-year-old adventurer embarking on a 12,000km trek from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital, all the way to London. It’ll take three years, encompass 14 countries and require enduring temperatures as low as -50 degrees. “It’s not hard for me,” she says bullishly. “I’m Mongolian – I’m used to harsh weather.” That said, Baigalmaa is only three months into the expedition and five of her original team members have already abandoned the tour – through a mixture of injury, illness or inability to cope. Baigalmaa (‘Baikal’ to her friends) has temporarily left the camp too, leaving her younger brother, a police officer and 10 camels just 480km short of the border. Baikal has returned to Ulaanbaatar to sort out some paperwork and meet with the Mongolian president to ease…

ON HALLOWEEN 1976, a spaceship descended on the stage of a Houston sports arena in front of 15,000 people. When the smoke and sparks cleared, a figure calling himself Dr Funkenstein – dressed all in fur with a pair of shades – stepped out to the sound of P-Funk: a psychedelic mix of rock and soul played by incredible musicians in ridiculous costumes. Dr Funkenstein and the Mothership (a stage prop constructed from a blockbuster budget) sprang from the otherworldly imagination of bandleader, songwriter and producer George Clinton. P-Funk was conceived as “pirate radio from outer space” but its blend of all-out partying and social empowerment evolved into a way of life. Through elaborate artwork, sci-fi mythology and slang that sounded like a cosmic Dr Seuss, Clinton’s Afrofuturist universe offered…

Bright decided to leave Nigeria to follow her dream of becoming a professional soccer player in Europe. She paid smugglers for the trip after they promised her a professional contract in Europe, but was then left stranded in Libya. Bright worked for 15 months as a cleaner before being able to pay for the boat journey and was one of 726 people rescued off the Libyan coast by MSF rescue vessel Prudence. Photographer Andrew McConnell captured this surreal portrait shortly after the rescue. “The journey from Nigeria to Libya is not easy,” says Bright. “We passed through deserts, struggled and struggled, with little to eat or drink. In Libya everything was bad… On the boat, people were vomiting but I didn’t because I’m a strong person. I was praying a…

In 1976, four shaggy-haired surfers travelled on a ninemonth adventure through the heart of Latin America. Driving their Volkswagen Kombi all the way from Brazil to California, the quartet covered 10,000km of open road and took every opportunity to perform the same sacred ritual. They’d pull their brightly coloured boards off the van’s roof, break out of their tank-tops and bell-bottoms, then ride the crest of an azure coastline. They knew, even then, that this was the trip of a lifetime – generating the kind of tales that they’d never tire of telling. Antonia Wallig grew up on those stories. Her father João, who was one of the four surfers, would launch into an animated recital at the slightest opportunity – be it in the form of dinner-time banter or…

Supaman stands on stage at the back of a gym hall – the kind with corrugated metal for walls – and searches the crowd for volunteers. Behind him hangs a flag representing a local native tribe, who are hosting a Native American Family Wellness Day in southern Arizona. The theme is ‘pride and tradition’ and Supaman has a point to prove. Armed with just a mic and a looping device, the rapper records snippets of his audience and then weaves them into an improvised song. The idea is that, by the time he’s shared his own story, everyone will leave here feeling empowered. The story starts with his feather-adorned outfit: an explosion of white, pink and powder-blue that leaves just his hands and face exposed. It’s worn for men’s fancy…

It’s a bright but frigid Friday afternoon in East Baltimore, where the sun casts long shadows off a row of vacant homes. Activist Erricka Bridgeford arrives at a local hub for nonprofits and checks her phone for news. We’re nearly 14 hours into a city-wide ceasefire and, so far, no one has been killed. Baltimore saw a record 343 homicides last year and although 2018 has barely begun, 27 men and women have been murdered in 39 days. To help stem that cycle of violence, Erricka co-founded Baltimore Ceasefire 365, a grassroots initiative with a simple goal: “Nobody kill anybody for 72 hours.” “I love Baltimore,” she says with a flash of pride. “But you know when someone in their eighties starts to feel lonely ’cause a lot of people…