Part 3 “The Albuquerque Balloonist” - A Year Of Progress
It’s been just over one year since I began my work documenting the culture and social history of Albuquerque’s hot air ballooning community, a community that I’ve been a member of for more than 15 years. In this post I’ll share updates on some of the progress I’ve made on The Albuquerque Balloonist project and explain how it’s evolved and lead to other work and opportunities over the past year.
PROGRESS METRICS: End of Year One (2022)
To help me measure and report my progress on the project, I routinely update a handful of metric counters on the main project page here.
INTERVIEWS COMPLETED: 80
RECORDED INTERVIEW HOURS: >240
PORTRAITS TAKEN: 53
HEADSHOTS TAKEN: 204
2022 INDIVIDUAL DONORS: 10
As an independent writer/artist taking on this project solo, I’m heavily dependent on community support and donations to ensure this work is successful. If you’re reading this, please seriously consider making a donation. As you continue reading you’ll see how far this work has come in a year’s time. This success is largely due to donations from people like you. Donors will be recognized on this website and in each of the resulting book publications. Thank you! Visit the Donor Wall here.
RULES TO LIVE BY
When I started conceptualizing what the photography for the project needed to capture, I set several rules for myself to follow. First, I committed to stop taking photos of my feet by accident while dangling my camera by my side. There’s a market for that, but this project is not it. Second, try not to photograph balloons in the sky, or really anywhere for that matter. Remember, this is a people project. If a balloon photobombs one of my images, it’s probably incidental. Photographs should include people as their primary subjects. If balloons are present in a photograph they shouldn’t distract from the human subjects in the image or they should depict nuanced balloon themed details. After all, if the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is or once was the most photographed event in the world as the event has claimed to be, then it stands to reason that human kind has more photos of balloons than we could possibly ever need or know what to do with. There are many photographers out there more motivated than myself to capture those ubiquitous calendar shots that are great for marketing ballooning. Balloonists love seeing photos of their balloons. Balloon photos are often a huge hit on Instagram! My friend Guillermo finds photographs of hot air balloons erotic (it’s the curves), so there’s definitely a need for balloon photos. However, for my project to be successful I need to stay focused on people.
FRONT PAGE NEWS
On the final day of the 50th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF), the Santa Fe New Mexican published a story about my ongoing work, touching on several themes that I’ve been describing in my writing. The story, “Floating Off Into the Sunset”, written by Matt Dahlseid, included interviews with several balloonists who have since retired from the sport after the conclusion of AIBF 2022.
To the surprise and delight of Matt and myself, the Associated Press picked up the story, retitled it “As Pilot’s Age, Albuquerque’s Ballooning Future at a Crossroads”, and ran it nationwide. A handful of other news outlets promoted the story, ensuring it had achieved international reach within days of its publishing.
It wasn’t long before I started receiving emails from readers expressing surprise and sorrow at the news of the state of things for balloonists in Albuquerque. No, the sky is not falling over Albuquerque and ballooning is not going the way of the dinosaurs. The story resonated with people, some of whom reached out after reading it and encouraged me to get in touch with their friends or relatives who had histories ballooning in the 505. Several of their leads have led to additional interviews and photographs for the project.
A month after the story’s publication, I’d asked Matt if he’d received any negative reactions to the story. “I only received positive feedback, surprisingly. Folks were just saying that the issues you brought up made a lot of sense. I thought I might hear something negative from the city but I never did. We’ve only had positive feedback, even from the Balloon Fiesta PR guy.”
You can read the original story here!
AN RC WAS BORN!
In July, 2022, I completed construction on my first Radio Controlled (RC) balloon; a long term goal that has unexpectedly become an exciting part of this project. Because of the kindness and help from my friends Mike and Ashley Kerns, Estevan Maestas, Terri Hanoumis, and Phil Bryant and Brian Duncan, I was able to home-build a 3,500 cubic foot Cameron, V-77 in time to fly it at the 50th AIBF.
I named the balloon Impostor Syndrome and I’ve been using it to promote The Albuquerque Balloonist project and share the gospel of ballooning. I’ve had the opportunity to fly the RC in cities throughout New Mexico including Carlsbad, Gallup, Chili, and Santa Fe where people rarely encounter balloons. These RC flights have served as a gateway to excite new people about ballooning and inform them of the many changes contributing to the reshuffling of the state’s ballooning communities. In 2023, I’ll be sharing Impostor Syndrome with low income and minority communities who almost never have opportunities to experience ballooning. An important part of bringing ballooning into the future depends on diversifying the sport and facilitating access so that under-represented communities can get involved if they want to.
INSTITUTIONAL RECOGNITION
Gallery representation is something most artists dream of. Having ones artwork displayed for sale facilitates exposure and career advancement. It wasn’t long after I’d started shooting content for The Albuquerque Balloonist that I was invited to show my photography at Gallery Hózhó in Albuquerque. Recently named Albuquerque Magazine’s “Best in the City” gallery in 2022, I had the privilege of working with Gallery Director Suzzane Fricke on two separate shows. The opportunity not only resulted in multiple art sales, it also facilitated deeper conversations concerning the ongoing changes experienced by Albuquerque’s ballooning community.
But wait, there’s more!
One of my side-quests was to get a photo from the project recognized by the Smithsonian. Fast-forward a year to January 26th, 2023 when I’m checking my email inbox and what do I find? No bullshit, I had received an email from THE Smithsonian. You see, several months prior in 2022 I had submitted several photographs to the Smithsonian’s annual photo contest. It was a snowball’s chance in Hell that I would make the cut as I’d be competing with world class photographers from every corner of the globe.
The email read, “Dear Bryce, On behalf of Smithsonianmag.com, I am writing to inform you that your photo ‘Launching at Dawn’ is being considered as a potential finalist in the ‘The American Experience’ category of our 20th Annual Photo Contest. We received more than 31,000 entries from around the world, and yours was among the best.”
“Launching at Dawn” was taken in July of 2022 during a pre-sunrise flight from Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It’s one of my most popular sellers and the available editions are running out fast! You can collect a limited edition, museum quality print of “Launching at Dawn” here. Although the photo didn’t make the contest’s final cut, being nominated and acknowledged by jurors at the Smithsonian is still kind of a big deal!
PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION
In August of 2022, I started a conversation with the curatorial team at the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum. I’d hoped to learn more about their archived resources and to further my research for this project. I was granted a meeting with the museum’s director and curators, consisting of Nan Masland, Lynn Newton, Rebecca Prinster, and Eric Wimmer. Unbeknownst to me at the time, several of them had been following the progress of my work with great interest in its intellectual and historic value. Before the meetings end, I was offered a solo photography exhibition!
We proceeded to schedule additional meetings to discuss concepts for the show. Rebecca had conceived of five themes we would use to organize and exhibit the photography. I shared over 100 photos with the team which we would narrow down to a manageable 30 that I would prepare for exhibition. The museum still needed a title for the show. “We strive for punchy, memorable titles”, Nan told me. It needed to be something that eluded to the photographic medium while also acknowledging the operative subject of the work as being people, not balloons. After some brainstorming with the team, we arrived at “BRYCE RISLEY: FOCUSING BEYOND BALLOONS.” Now I’m not claiming this is a mind-blowing title, but brevity was a big consideration and this gets the point across.
The next and most daunting step was to seek sponsorship. Producing the artwork for the museum would be pricy and this was not a cost I was able to bear out-of-pocket. I approached several businesses and individuals in search of funding and I’m happy to say that thanks to their generosity, the artwork’s production is underway! Thank you Dorothy and Larry Rainosek with Frontier & Golden Pride Restaurants, David Eichhorn with Aerco Balloon Port, Jesse Naylor with TBC General Contracting, Mike and Ashley Kerns, and Tom Fisher and Diana Schroen. There is an ongoing need and opportunity to fund this important and exciting community focused work! Those who donate will be recognized in both book publications and on this website. You can make a donation here.
BRYCE RISLEY: FOCUSING BEYOND BALLOONS will be viewable to the public at the Anderson Abruzzo Albuquerque International Balloon Museum beginning May 16th, 2023 through May of 2024. A public event will be held to formally celebrate the opening of the exhibit on July 22nd, 2023. Mark your calendars and plan to attend! I’ll be posting ads to market this event as it approaches. To purchase tickets and learn more about the show, click here!
ANTICI…PATION
So when are the two books going to be published? Well Rome wasn’t built in a damn day. It’s not lost on me that the scale of this project is monumental. I don’t plan on screwing the pooch here. There is no second attempt at this work as Albuquerque’s ballooning community is changing rapidly. What can be documented today will be lost to history tomorrow. Quality outputs take time. It’ll reasonably take another two to three years until both books hit the shelves. The anticipation is unbearable, isn’t it? Don’t pretend you’re not excited about it. If you’ve contributed an interview or portrait to this project already or are fortunate enough to have experienced ballooning in New Mexico, these books are about you! If you’re a person and you’ve never endured the misfortune of meeting a balloonist, the content of these books may come as a shock. The stories individuals have contributed will enthrall you and trigger a spectrum of emotions. Preserving ballooning’s culture and social history matters. This work is positioned to serve as one of the most intimate and comprehensive accounts of New Mexico’s ballooning history produced to date! Don’t miss your chance to be a part of it.
If you’d like to contribute your stories, photos, or other support to this first-of-its-kind project, please contact me here.
Thank you for joining me on this journey!
