Im releasing 1,000 unique 1 of 1 photography NFTs from my travels across all seven continents, each with its own story as part of a PROOF Collective Official collaboration. Minting December 19.

TREY RATCLIFF: 1K1K PROJECT

I have a lame confession to make about this photo. I was too tired to get to the top of the sand dune to take this photo from there. I mean, it was absolutely huge. I set out with the best of intentions. It must have been 400 feet high. That may not sound high, but it is effectively almost 1000 feet because every step up makes your feet slide down just about as far as you just ascended! I went right up the spine of the dune so I could put a foot on each side, but the sand was so impossibly soft and fluid that it was almost useless. So I eventually just gave up and thought, "you know what? The sunset will be good enough from right here!"

Sahara Desert, Morocco

The Sun Sets in the Sahara Desert #0070

As is the case with every day here, I have also included a photo. This is of the indomitable Fitz Roy at sunrise buried deep in the Andes, in the hinterland between Argentina and Chile. To get this shot, it was none too easy! First, I "woke" up after a sleepless night in a two-man tent with Yuri. It was perhaps the worst night of my life and I"ve never had a panic attack before, but I honestly felt like I was pretty close. The smell combined with the pitch black, the snoring, the freezing cold, and the tiny tent was almost more than I could bear!

I woke up around 4:30 AM with -7 Celsius temperatures. It was bitter cold. I got dressed QUICKLy in the pitch-black cold and then headed off with two of my Russian friends to begin scaling the mountain. They had lights on their hats; I did not. I walked between them, trying not to slip on the icy "trail" between the dodging shadows cast by their headlights. I"ll never forget it for the rest of my life. We ascended 1,500 feet in less than 45 minutes so we could catch the pink rays of sunrise just as they hit the peaks.

Patagonia, Argentina

A Razor to the Sky #0071

On our last day here, we took a ferry over to Macau. Right before the ferry, we went through customs because there's still a whole process to go from Hong Kong to Macau, even though they are both in China. I had to get a multi-pass (Fifth Element Style) entry Visa for China because I was going in and out so much. I still find the whole customs process to be so slow, especially in light of new tech. Anyway, at least it was a pretty morning!

Hong Kong, China

The Commute Across the Bay in Hong Kong on a Rare Foggy Morning... #0075

When the kids were younger we tried to do family trips every year. I decided to do a tour of the world's religions within that. We started here, in India, where the kids got to know several of their pantheistic gods. We then went on to study Buddhism in Thailand, Islam in Oman, and Catholicism in Italy.

Here in India we took a train all through the southern regions. We absolutely loved it. It took a few days for our kids to get used to only having Indian food, but after they got over that hump, they could not get enough!

Kanyakumari, Tamil Nadu, India

Where Three Seas Meet in India #0079

These are some rather mysterious pygmy people that came down out of the mountain jungles one day to have a dance-off with the other tribes. Dance-off is not really the right word. It's actually kind of a serious cultural thing that is the highlight of the year for all the tribes. I was kind of hoping they'd do Thriller or something that I knew... or maybe re-enact a classic scene from Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo. But they didn't! They did a very special kind of dance that was threatening, hugely impressive and used absolutely none of Turbo's marquee moves.

Anyway, this particular tribe had a bunch of kids with their heads shaved down the middle and then they take some of that hair and attach it under their chins. It certainly makes for a unique look that clearly makes this tribe appear a bit different than the others.

Goroka, Papua New Guinea

People of Papua New Guinea #0082

After you pass Glenorchy, the paved road continues for a while as you approach Paradise. The paved road then turns into a dirt road. At this point, many visitors turn around, which is a shame. you can keep on rolling down this road in your rental car for quite a way. There's even a few river crossings you can make, like Arwen on horseback. you can do it! Probably. 

There is also a lesser-known place to stay down here called the "Paradise Trust." There are about a dozen little cabins, all different and each remote from one another. There is no electricity, but there is running water and many of them have an iron bathtub outside where you can heat it with firewood and watch the stars overhead. It's incredibly romantic... almost beyond romantic.

Paradise, New Zealand

The Dirt Road to Paradise #0086

While in the north of India, I visited this Hindu temple. It was beautiful and decadent inside. I can't even imagine what it used to look like back in the day. The walls supposedly had inlaid jewels and other precious stones. Despite time, it is still impressive today.

I had set up for a normal multi-exposure shot, but then this Muslim woman came floating through the room, so I quickly made some adjustments and grabbed a quick single-exposure HDR.

Agra, India

Floating Through the Temple #0087

It was a damp but pleasant day, after raining all morning. I was inside a tiny little cafe near Kyoto having a green tea which was warm and smelled so nice. I drank it while I watched the rain outside and watched a few people walk by with purpose and umbrellas. I saw a tiny edge of light in the sky and thought things might change, so I somewhat reluctantly geared up with all my camera equipment and hiked over to this bamboo forest. The sun came out and started melting all the morning rain into a foggy mist that fell down around and behind me.

Kyoto, Japan

CONGRATULATIONS! YOU FOUND A UBER-UNIQUE!

In this collection of 1k1k, there are six uber-uniques. That means if you are holding this in your wallet on Mar 31, 2023, you can have the full print shipped to you! The real-life prints range in price from $35,000 USD to $95,000 USD, and you'll join amazing collectors like Edward Norton and Leonardo DiCaprio. Note after the 1 print is claimed, there will not be additional prints for future buyers of the NFT. Check our project website and contact us to find out more details.

The Mist From the Tree Tops Fell on Me From Above and Behind #0088

On the final night of Burning Man, when the Temple burns, most of the 80,000 people there take their bikes in the same direction. Well, kinda, but you know what I mean. I was headed out to the deep playa and stopped to watch the sunset and take photos of the worshippers riding by.

Burning Man, Nevada

The Final Night #0092

I love all the umbrellas in Tokyo! I captured these two girls that were giggling away while looking at some Christmas decorations just as it started to snow.

Have you noticed how Japanese girls cover their mouths when they laugh? you know why that is? you'll never guess. I'll get some of the details wrong on these dates. Before the Meiji period of the late 1800s, women would often die their teeth with a black lacquer to show adulthood or marriage. They often found this embarrassing, so they would cover their mouths when laughing. Even though it stopped 150 years ago, the tradition continues, passed on by daughters watching their mothers for generations. 

Tokyo, Japan

Christmas Snow in Tokyo #0095

Twas a Saturday after dark, and the party and the fire keep going all night long. This was taken about 15 minutes after the man fell down and was being consumed by fire.

The burning reminds me of this wonderful little physics nugget from Richard Feynman. This might be from his book "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out." Anyway, he makes a nice description that trees don't grow out of the ground, but they mostly grow out of the air. They get a few nutrients and some water and stuff from the ground, but 99% of the meat of the tree is made from carbon. The leaves grab the carbon dioxide and then use the sun to slice off the C from the O2. It hangs on to the carbon and it becomes the wood. The tree then gets rid of the O2 because it is waste.

Later, we take that wood and make it super-hot with fire, which makes the carbon reconnect with the oxygen, creating carbon dioxide once again. And then the cycle starts all over as it floats over to a nearby tree to go through it all again. All that fire, then, can be seen as stored sunlight. 
Anyhoo... that's the kind of stuff I read! Haha... you can probably search on youTube for "Feynman Tree Growing out of Air" and see more. He has so many great little physics thoughts like that. Wow, I really end up boring whoever sits by me on burn night.

Burning Man, Nevada

Trees Grow Out of Air #0111

Finding simple shapes and order in the chaos is a small pleasure of mine. All the world seems so chaotic and people seem to do their best to create chaos, but order is the natural state of things. So I tend to try to find order and reductionism as a mild meditation to bring me solace throughout the day.

Aruba has some of the greatest beaches in the world. The powdery white sand make gives the water an extra level of luminance.

Also, this isn't very poetic. But I quite like that yellow-ring thing. I call them sea-condoms, but that is not really what they are. That would be silly.

Aruba, Caribbean

Another Day on the White Sands of Aruba #0116

This is my oldest son, Ethan, holding my youngest daughter, Scarlett. I always have mixed emotions when I look at photos of my kids when they were younger. Time is so weird. I was really happy to be with them at the time but god does it go fast... and I think you look back and think, gee, I could have been a better dad. But I think this is something all parents feel in one way or another. On the happy side, I am so glad to have captured so much of their joy and fun on our adventures around the world.

The Baths, Virgin Gorda

Kids in the Baths #0117

This is one of my new favorite photos! I took this quite randomly in Morocco. I was driving from the Sahara desert near Algeria over towards the Atlas Mountains. I probably stopped to go to the bathroom or grab a snack or something. While walking outside the car along the road, I saw this scene, and thought, you know, THAT would make a good photo! So I went to fish my camera out of the car to capture this.

Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Colors of the Countryside in Morocco #0123

I love this area of China and right upon arrival, there was a huge storm hitting. So exciting! I love a good storm. It was probably ill-advised, but my friend Tom (MySpace Tom) and I climbed up a mountain to get some photos. We were underneath the shade of an old pagoda, which kept us from getting wet... it was perfect conditions for storm shooting, really!

This is the result of taking about 100 photos while waiting to get lucky with the lightning. It's honestly just a guessing game to know when it will strike. I had the shutter open for 1.3 seconds with each shot so I might be able to capture the whole thing. MOST cool lightning shots you see are fake or a composition of several different lightning shots. I don't do that sort of thing... I never add stuff to my photos. Sure, there is post-processing, but I don't add in elements that I didn't see at that particular moment. If anything, I am a reductionist and remove things from a photo that I find unnecessary or distracting.

Guilin, China

Storm Chasing in Guilin #0125

This was taken near a giant Gundam robot in Tokyo. It's not only a great spot to take photos of the robot, but also a great place to people-watch. A lot of cute Japanese kids come here and I enjoy taking photos of them just as much! Some people ask me if it's weird to take photos of the kids or whatever. I don't think so, especially not in Japan. All the parents are totally cool with it. I think there is some kind of a Western fear-based hang-up that there must be something inherently strange about it... but I certainly don't feel that way - cute kids are awesome and fun to photograph!

you can get this look with the natural lens flare when shooting with a lens like the 50mm f/1.4 (this was a Leica) and if you aim into the sun with it a little bit in the corner. If you were to draw orthogonal lines from the lens-flare-curve, it would point exactly to the sun.

Tokyo, Japan

Little Girl in Tokyo #0126

I often hear an interesting piece of advice for artists, and, well for anyone. Don't be boring. Well, this is definitely not boring.

However, not being boring also means you take a lot of risks. Some of these risks push the edges of "polite society" or what is proper. So, yes, I occasionally get in trouble, but that doesn't really stop me from trying new things.

Either way this was definitely not boring. you can't quite see it from this angle, but two freight trains crashed together and exploded. This used to be a common spectacle in the olden days,

Burning Man, Nevada

Boring #0127

On another icy morning after waking up in a camp covered with snow, I crunched through the fresh fall and found my way down to this lake, It was still and silent. There"s something about a soft snow that seems to absorb even more sound, making it extra ethereal.

Patagonia, Antarctica