My name is Todd Lambert, and this is my story. It all began when the country was a different place, my parents were wanting to have a family, and I was born.
Tonight, we look at Twilightscapes by Todd Lambert. Todd is best-known for his incredible night photography and unusual photo locations.
We begin in Southern Californa in the early 80s, where Todd spent his childhood enjoying sports and grew up surfing, skateboarding and skiing.
It’s now many years later and Todd is fresh into the working world, after having busted his way out of high school with C- grades.
Todd quickly followed that act with his encore performance of a drug and alcohol-induced loss of his first two years of college.
He often seemed to get along with both the people and obstacles in his life, by faking it better than most.
The Internet had just really started, but it became a fountain of knowledge at Todds fingertips.
Just as he’d been self-taught with most other things in his life, Todd immersed himself completely, trying to learn as much as he could about all aspects of...
Todd had worked hard and become one of the the once-vaunted “Webmasters” who controlled the Internet.
These Webmasters, were the ones that they made the critically-acclaimed movie “Hackers” about and starred Angelina Jolie.
It was at this point that Todd was shining while he was sinking. He’d reached a great peak in his career, and he should have been basking in what that brought.
Todd finally had the large McMansion in the Burbs, new cars, happy dogs and a great career.
❝
❞
I should have been on top of the world, yet I felt empty and felt as though I was just going through the motions.
But it all started to come crashing down for Todd. Eventually, his body succumbed from all of the years of excessive 1 and 0’s.
The "stay-up-all-night-party-like-a-rock-star" type of life he ’d always dreamed of was in fact,
❝
❞
I once saw Todd eat an entire box of Krispie Kreme donuts and then he washed it down with at least 2 gallons of Mountain Dew.
And this was like, usually ever day...
With all of this power and great responsibility comes great lethargy, gluttony and ultimately, Diabetes Type II, a heart condition, unknown gastric issues, horrible near-sightedness and of course all the debt and other normal stresses of life.
In his free time, Todd had begun playing around with photography as a hobby.
He became fascinated with all things photography and he sought out to learn everything there was to learn about it.
Todd finally reached a point where his photography, had become the driving force in his life. The wind beneath his sails, if you want to call it that.
❝
❞
I really only had free time during the evenings which is why I initially learned to photograph at night.
I just found that I really enjoyed the peacefulness and tranquility when I photographed alone at night.
Todd proceeded to sell all of his earthly possessions. His house, cars, tvs, everything. He downsized his life to fit into an on-the-road lifestyle.
Todd shed most of his belongings and other stuff that had become shackles around him for so many years.
The things he owned had in fact, owned him.
Over the years, Todd had always been intrigued by being places where he wasn’t supposed to be.
It started as a kid, by sneaking out of his parents house every night and wandering the city streets, looking for the voices that called him out of his sleep.
Learning to accept darkness and find peace in the unknown was something that became second nature to Todd, even though he wasn’t aware of it at the time.
❝
❞
There was actually several incidences of me pretending to be “sleep walking”... in order to help explain my unusual nocturnal activities to my parents.
In trying to find his lost soul inside these decrepit and crumbling vestiges of our American past, Todd had finally found something that actually tickled all his special spots.
He became obsessed with finding and photographing rusted cars, old ghost towns and remnants of America that had become long forgotten.
❝
❞
The history of our past, seemed to call to me. I was enamored by ghosts of places that I’d never been, yet they felt like home when I got there.
Todds mind has became much clearer and his views are endless and the world has become his back porch. He has no schedules, he has no agendas other than his own.
Living and working full-time on-the-road across the highways of America can be tough.
If you've come this far, maybe you're willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don't you?
I could use a good man to help me get my project on wheels. I'll keep an eye out for you and the chessboard ready.-- Shawshank Redemption (1994)