This year was my 5th Anarchapulco, and my second speaking on the main stage. I’ve photographed every Anarchapulco I’ve attended, and it’s my hope to compile my photo collections (along with Judd’s) into a book to be sold at Anarchapulco next year: a 5 year retrospective.
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, just enjoying the environment with mojitos and good conversation. Speaking of the pool – there’s a waterfall that if you go behind it, there’s a hidden BAR. It’s one of my favorite random features of the Princess hotel.
This year was a little more intimate than previous years. Smaller attendance than 2018’s for sure, even 2019’s. But it was nice to have a lot of great conversations with people, and get to know so many new people. And there were still more than 500 people, just less than the usual 1000+.
My speech was well received, I enjoyed others’ speeches, and so many people I spoke to thanked me for talking about *solutions* to problems. This year felt like a shift: like some changes are in the air and it’s a little awkward, but next year is going to be big.
And I really hope it is. I spoke to Jeff Berwick the last day of Anarchapulco and I told him I wanted to be involved in making 2021’s Anarchapulco amazing. I’m bursting with ideas. We agreed we’d talk in a month or so. I’m looking forward to it.
Video of speech will be up in a few months. I’m looking forward to sharing it. It inspired others AND it inspired me to do more work surrounding the ideas presented in it. The ways that entrepreneurism and markets can be more effective vehicles for change than political action.
Anyway – this year I had over 1000 photos I wanted to share, so I broke it up into two albums. My friend Yaakov Markel ALSO took some photos during the event, which he sent me and I selected and edited some of his. Altogether, we had over 10,000 photos, which I’ve turned into 1,050 edited, curated photos. He’s got roughly 150 photos in the album – you’ll see his watermark on his. You’ll see my watermark on mine.
The albums are below:
There are incredible shots in BOTH albums so don’t miss either one! As always, they’re hosted on my Facebook.
Note:
Anarchapulco compensated me for my speaking and photography with free tickets and a hotel room. I have been lucky enough every year to receive donations at this stage that have covered my flight, food expenses, and helped comp the over 40 hours of work that go into making an album like this.
If you happen to 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). https://www.patreon.com/avens
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 (applesDOTobrienATgmailDOTcom) and I’ll get you them. I request voluntary payment in return for that – the amount is what’s open to your interpretation, but something for the effort.
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 albums – there’s gold throughout them!
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 2021!
Love, Peace, & Anarchy!
AVENS OBRIEN 