This year was my 4th Anarchapulco. It was also my first in which I was a main stage speaker. The previous three Anarchpulcos, I have been one of the official photographers of the event – my photos can be found on my Facebook – 2018, 2017 (on Judd’s Facebook, I was his second shooter), 2016. If you saw my speech, you may have noticed I used photos of Anarchapulco (both from 2017 & 2018) from both Judd and myself (mostly him), as the background images in my presentation.

I love Anarchapulco. Every year has been a blast – lots of fun, good people, good energy, and a little bit of a vacation. I spend at least one day at the beach or the pool, skipping speeches and just enjoying the environment with mojitos and good conversation.

This year, going into it, there was a lot I was worried about. Anarchapulco had new organizers, they actually had and stuck to a budget (denying lots of requests — including the expense of Judd and myself to photograph), my friend John was murdered in Acapulco just two weeks before the event, and several of my friends (and my beloved) were not going to be in attendance.

I was really worried, flying in, that this event would not be what it has been – when every year it has been better than the last.

But I got to the Princess hotel as the sun was rising on Valentine’s Day – and it immediately just *felt* like it was Anarchapulco. It’s like when you can smell Christmas in the air. It’s the wild anarchy conference of Acapulco, Mexico. I love it.

It was different in some ways. There were people I missed, and I didn’t stray often from the event space (with an exception to see baby turtles released at midnight one evening). I wasn’t there in my capacity as an official photographer, so I didn’t bother trying to hit every event (I skipped the concert, where Alais Clay, Backwordz and Immortal Technique performed), and I mostly just had fun — I slept more than usual, I gave a main stage speech and a side-stage Q&A talk, I did karaoke with a number of people one night (without my camera, just letting loose on the mic), I spent all of Sunday just enjoying the beach and pool, and I actually got to relax (when I was done worrying about my speech on Friday afternoon). It was a lovely vacation, punctuated with the occasional speech in the main hall and lots of friends and rum.

That’s actually what I love about many conferences, but Anarchapulco especially. There are speakers I don’t even like there – the conference is filled with far more woo and conspiracy theory than I personally wish to subscribe to, and there are people I’d describe as definitely “questionably” anarchist or even libertarian. But Anarchapulco gives few fucks, and so I can spend the day at the beach instead of listening to ravings about the illuminati, and it’s all good. I love that there is so much around me to enjoy and take part in, I can ignore anything I don’t want.

That being said, besides my speech, which will be uploaded in due time, I couldn’t *not* take some photos when I saw something I wanted to shoot. As a result, I have a photo album to share, and many pictures I’m very proud of. I love taking portraits – I don’t have Judd’s skill and vision for giving you the full ambiance of the conference through still photography, but I love taking shots of the people around me, and showing them in their joy and their moments of play.  As I said in my speech, I come to these conferences because I love people, and I love to get to know them.

So here’s my album, posted on Facebook – Anarchapulco 2019. I asked my friend Yaakov Markel who shoots with a similar camera setup to send me any pictures he had from the event – you’ll see the few he sent me watermarked with his name in the bottom right corner.  This album doesn’t include much by way of speeches, or concerts, or lots of other things I didn’t bother to shoot. This wasn’t FOR Anarchapulco this year, it was for me, and for my friends – the ones I’ve known for years and the ones I met in these moments.

That being said – if you happen to like my photos and wish to voluntarily donate towards my work, I am always appreciative of such a thing. No donation is required, and with or without one, you can feel free to use these photos for publications, for personal headshots, LinkedIn profiles, Tinder, whatever you want. I like getting credit for them if possible, but what’s most important to me is you looking good!

I shoot a lot of events, speak at conferences, write, and otherwise do a lot within and outside of the libertarian movement – much of it at discounted rates for the organizations I support. If you want to support my work in a longer-term format, you are welcome to join me on Patreon, where you choose a donation amount for my productivity (I offer posts featuring photo albums, videos of speeches, articles, interviews, etc).

If you’d prefer to just donate towards this project, perhaps because you like your own photos or photos of your friends, I can accept donations in multiple forms:

My Paypal is:
https://www.paypal.me/avensobrien

My Bitcoin address:
1Ht8EqhmMmdksgXfY3W7tarfYf1w9iuyPU

I can also take Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash or Dash. Send me a message on Facebook or comment for those addresses.

If you don’t know how much to donate, any amount is appreciated. Some people donate $20 or $30 per photo of themselves, or $5 for the effort or $100. No amount is too small (or too large…). The money goes towards funding more camera equipment, travel, and generally compensating me for the time I didn’t spend actually working a job that pays me money and instead worked on photos late into the nights. It’s a labor of love, so I’m happy to do it, but as a capitalist, I’m happy when the market rewards me for good work.

If you need something unwatermarked and/or larger for printing, please private message me either on Facebook or email (avens.obrien@gmail.com) and I’ll get you them (donations are VERY MUCH appreciated when you request stuff like that).

Thank you for being a model or a viewer as I continue the mission to try to make Liberty Look Good. And donations or not, please check out the album – there’s gold throughout it!

For those camera-inclined who want to know what I shot with: it was a Sony a7s with a Zhongyi Speedmaster 50mm 0.95 Full Frame Manual Focus Lens.

Lastly, tag your friends, and share the album whenever you wish. I look forward to seeing many of these faces again at Anarchapulco 2020.

Peace, Love, Anarchy

 

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