My work was recently discovered by Scott Anderson's Folio Hunt site, featuring biographies and portfolio of the world's best photographers. 

Josh Fowler and I opened our documentary Heart of Stone with a chance encounter in Steele, Alabama.

Southeastern Climbers Coalition activist Brad McLeod walked a cliffline with a local landowner and a realtor, talked some turkey, and shook hands at the base of the access trail. The ball was rolling on access to a climbing that had been shut down since the early 80s, when, as the story goes, one too many climbers traipsed through another landowners tomato farm at the top.

In the few months since then, McLeod and the SCC sealed the deal on 25 acres of land, including 1400 linear feet of sandstone cliffs, an access trail, and even a trailer house at the base. Like all SCC purchases, this land will be multi-use, open to all, and preserved for future generations.

To really follow through, of course, the SCC needs to raise the money to pay off the note. That's where Chaco Sandals and Rock/Creek Outfitters come in. A long-time supporter of greenspace initiatives, Chaco is teaming up with Rock/Creek (SNEWS and Backpacker Magazine's 2009 Online Retailer of the Year) to raise $5000 toward the purchase, by donating a portion of ALL sandal sales for a period of time through Rock/Creek.

Go here to learn more.

Josh and I were tapped to create a promo for this partnership. You can see it in HD below:

Chaco and Rock/Creek - Summer of Steele from Andrew Kornylak on Vimeo.

Much more cliffline (some say the best) is still privately-owned at Steele, but this plot gives the climbing community a foothold in the region, and a strong position from which to negotiate with other landowners for access. We're neighbors now. Good neighbors. So don't screw it up!

Just a note to check out the new website. Same Livebooks goodness, but it's bigger, with more new work. Check out the new Food portfolio, from a story on organic farming at The Cliffs Communities in North Carolina, some personal work from the holidays, and vegetable still-life. I love food.

"Wiley X is really about versatility, and it is one of the few brands that can meet occupational safety requirements while being cool enough and functional enough for outdoor sports and just hanging out. Andrew has really helped us bring the versatility story to life in a very authentic way." - Mike Smith, Partner at Sasquatch Advertising.

In early February I shot a third campaign for California-based WileyX Eyewear. Another fun shoot with a client whose products I actually use.

We shot for a week in my old hood, Tucson and Phoenix Arizona. I brought my crew from Atlanta:


At the Denver Airport: Left, John Kelso, pro skater, pro punk rocker, pro-beard. Right: Sharif Hassan - the Egyptian MacGuyver.

The theme for this campaign was "Recession Proof Eyewear," i.e. shades that can be worn for work, play and hanging out. All the product we shot this year, from performance cycling blades to bubble shades meets ANSI standards for safety. So you can throw away that box of cheap throwaway safety glasses youd never be caught dead in without a hard hat.

So for this concept, we shot four different models in three different scenarios each: recreational, occupational, and lifestyle. Since a lot of the sunglasses are multi-purpose (thats the whole point), we also needed to get each permutation shot with 2 or 3 different glasses. So we were looking at like 48 different shots. I knew that math degree would come in handy some day.

Luckily Art Director, Matt Graff from Sasquatch was on location, to keep the math straight and to provide, well, art direction.

Total Airheads. Matt Graff of Sasquatch Ads, left, and the crew stoke up on Sour Cherry and Green Apple at the Mastercraft facility in Phoenix.

We were joined by stylist/MUA Valerie Badalian from Tucson. We also worked with Set/Prop coordinator Maggie Macfarland and had locaton help from Jason Mullins and my good friends at Rocks and Ropes Climbing Gym, Ed Foster at La Suprema Bikes, and Luke Bertelsen at Contact Climbing Holds. Peter Catalanotte and The folks at the Tucson Film Office went out of their way to get us last-minute permits and location advice. Mastercraft of Arizona provided a sick new wakeboat for the shoot.

Some behind the scenes shots:

End of a busy week and month. Here is some recent news:

In early winter I shot some stills and animation sequences in Mobile, Alabama for The Discovery Channel. The images were used for a Koppel on Discovery show called The Last Lynching. The one-hour special about three Americans profoundly affected by incidents of racism premiered on October 13. Here is a trailer. Note the big tree at the end. That's my jam! The effect was created by the wizards at Imaginary Forces, by cutting out stills and applying parallax effects over video and so on. Pretty cool stuff, and I've seen more if it around lately. Anyway, nice to have a hand in some cool effects and a great documentary series.


In the last several months I'd shot a lot of editorial portraits, and they have made to press recently, for (clockwise from upper left) Atlanta Magazine, AARP Bulletin, The Wall Street Journal, The Magazine Group, BusinessWeek, and Modern Painters. Check out this link to the WSJ article and slideshow, which came out just this week. It's an interesting story.

I made a cover and innards for a feature on Southern bouldering legend James Litz for Urban Climber Magazine. I shot with James, one of the strongest boulderers in the world, a couple times in between working on Heart of Stone this winter. Super cool, humble, and stupid strong. Glad he is moving back to the South. Obed ranger Rob Turan (a climbing legend in his own right) ended up spinning a tale for UC on James, so the shots were timely.

I just finished a third advertising campaign for WileyX Eyewear, which we shot over a week in Southern Arizona. It was fun as hell. I'll blog on it soon, after the ads are out.

The Cliffs sent out their beautiful quarterly magazine, published by Redwood Communications. It's around here somewhere and I'll scan some pages in when I get the chance. I've been shooting for the Cliffs for about a year now, mostly on their properties in South and North Carolina. If you know golf, you know the Cliffs. Tiger is building his first signature course there.

They had seen my work in (the now sadly endangered) magazine Garden & Gun last year, and have since hired me to shoot several advertorial stories, on Homes, golf, landscapes, lifestyle, etc.. They have some great properties in BC and Chile as well. better hit the driving range...