Max Grudzinski

Holy Moonshine! 🌔 So much love to all you beautiful people for jamming so hard with us at our 9th annual fest at @earthskytime . Awoooo! Big thanks to our co-creators, Earth Sky Time for welcoming us all to the land and for feeding the community with soul food 🥖 Gracias @pulsodebarro_ for your Afro-Latin grooves, and @maxgrudz for the sweet shots! Next up is @imaginezeromusicfest this Saturday, then @thedancehallkittery 9.20 and Harvest Moonshine Fest 9.21 at @whitebarnfarmers . Keep the pulse of love, peace, and justice pounding! 💜🥁🌙

I haven’t posted in a while, but I wanted to share my deepest gratitude to the incredible folks in this community and beyond who helped me navigate some of the challenges I faced in 2023. Your calls, texts, cards, visits, and daily FaceTimes meant the world to me. We all know the saying, “it takes a village,” and that simple truth has resonated more and more deeply as I’ve settled into life in rural Vermont. The new year is already presenting some promising opportunities in both my personal and professional life. I’m brimming with excitement for these new beginnings, bringing me closer to the land and people who truly deserve my time and energy. To anyone who offered support or simply checked in, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Here’s to greener pastures in 2024!

I have been sitting on these words for a little, but it felt important to share something for a brother who burned so big and bright. One of the sweetest and most gentle men I was ever fortunate enough to call a best friend passed last month. He was one of those folks that was so much to so many and it’s been incredibly painful to feel his absence rip through all his friends and family, even at an immense distance. Adam was one of the guys in my life who helped me turn right when I could have easily gone left. He was the first person to turn around in an English class at a new high school I had switched to. He initially asked if I was the student teacher (he later eluded to my messenger bag and fact that I was way overdressed), but then invited me to play cards that night at his house and the rest was history. I have had the distinct honor later in life of capturing the weddings, children, and accomplishments of many of the wonderful folks I played cards with that afternoon. I have been running through the catalog of amazing memories I have both in my head and on my hard drives with Adam and wanted to share some. He is and always will be a massive source of inspiration to me. There aren’t many folks that had both the genius and compassion that he did, and our countless hours of epic conversations and laughs will inform the decisions I make for the rest of my years. Please rest easy brother, you will be massively missed.

After spending by bday in NC, I flew straight to Portland to capture my dear old friend @lanescarano ’s wedding. It had been years since we’d seen each other, and it felt so good to spend time together and meet his wonderful wife @rae_ch_ . I could post dozens from their next level wedding day at @nobleridgetreedeck , but here are a few mostly centered around the ceremony.

I typed four separate captions for this post and decided that these platforms are most likely not the place to publicly criticize the 1984/Wall-E/Handmaiden dystopian hellscape this country is evolving into, nor does it serve me (or anyone else) to scream into these echo chambers anymore. While I’m 1000% for activism, action, and awareness it is becoming clear to me that whatever is happening on this app, specifically in the stories function, seems to have less and less to do with those three things… I firmly believe we need to stop and take a deep look at how the constant sharing of jarring headlines or others’ hottest takes on said headlines is affecting us. It is creating a never ending trauma loop and most likely adding to us trying to function in a constant state of fight or flight. Sharing and reliving weekly atrocities over and over again as we engage with this app is not sustainable or healthy. What we need is deep healing and community support. We need more solution based and mutual-aid posts. We need to normalize reaching down on a regular basis and providing resources and money to those who are less fortunate. Most importantly, we need to create space and take the burden off so many who struggle daily so that they may also have the ability to heal in even the simplest ways that so many of us take for granted. My heart hurts for the state of this country and those most effected by these insanely psychotic and theocratic Supreme Court rulings. Please, please take time to separate from all the madness and try to find moments of peace on a daily basis. Sending so much light and love to all of you in these turbulent times. (This photo was taken while sleeping outside on the land Saturday night. The Milky Way peeked out and provided me some much needed perspective.)

I’ve been lending a hand over at @fablefarm for about a month now, and it has been a wildly transformative expierence. The frequency of the land, the immense kindness of everyone I’ve met there, and witnessing the beautiful cooperation and support from local farms and community has been nourishing for my soul. This photo is from the first @feastandfield event of the season last week. It was a perfect evening of live music, farm fresh food, delcious drinks, and belly laughs by the fire late into the night. It’s hard to describe just how grateful I am for finding this place and these people…

I don’t post much to the feed these days, but I just ended my first winter running social media for Okemo. I figured I’d share a few favorite photos from the season. It most certainly had its ups and downs, but I’m ultimately very thankful for all the wonderful folks I met working at the mountain. Looking forward to a summer full of camping and some new opportunities and adventures!

Earlier this week I delivered my final gallery of wedding images from last year and realized I haven’t shared a single one all year. I went through and picked a favorite from each wedding, the majority of which ended up being black and white. Thank you to all the amazing couples that trusted me to capture such a special day during such a strange time in this world.

Hey all, since Vermont was “out of internet” (as one company told us), I was unable to get an updated print shop together for the holidays. I, like many of us, haven’t been traveling much these last few years, but I pulled together and edited what I think is a pretty special gallery of mainly East Coast images. I so much appreciate all the well wishes and messages in regards to our move to Vermont. And while living here is a dream, I have been living the proverbial  “working two jobs to make ends meet” life this season. I know it is only chapter one, but it doesn’t make spending an entire day's work on a small grocery run any easier. If you are interested in supporting my continued photographic endeavors, it would mean the world. There is a link to both my new and older print galleries in my bio. I hope you all have been hanging in there as best you can.

I moved to Vermont a month ago, and sitting outside at 3am watching meteors tear across the night sky was the exact reason why…

The world we were handed is something I don’t want to pass on…I was downtown yesterday for a shoot with one of my oldest friends and decided to attend the protests after. My intentions were not to take a ton of photos but to just listen. The stories that were shared as the crowd stopped at intersections were powerful and shook me to my core. This country and city have felt like living in a failed state this past year, but last night I felt and saw hope and ideas that need to take hold. Because if they don’t, it will be decades more of hate, racism, violence, suffering, poverty, starvation and struggle for so many people in this country. We have so much potential and such a limited amount of time here. Why anyone would want to spend that time in anger and hatred of others is something I will never understand. To those reading this that have the love, care, and compassion, I see your posts, I see your stories and I know so many of you have the right intentions in your hearts. I implore you to please go use that energy to enact change in anyway you can. Donate your time, donate your money, donate your food, donate your thoughts and energy to make an impact. It’s pretty simple logic that the change isn’t going to come from the top down, so we need to stop looking to elected officials and the rich elite to do anything to benefit the bottom; they wouldn’t be there without it… My insides have been shattered by those impacted by gun violence and the seemingly endless atrocities against black people in this country by those sworn to serve and protect. There is no real choice at this point besides a complete overhaul of the criminal justice system and a deep, deep look at policing and why guns are so prevalent in our society at the levels they are when their sole purpose at this point in our existence should be to hunt.

I’ve never been less certain about what a year has in store for me. There are so many unknowns, and long-term planning has seemingly gone out the window entirely. I have way more questions than answers for the first time in a while. I’m trying to see it as potential, but after last year, it’s a bit hard to enter this one with my chin up. My goal in the new year: survive.