After living all 32 years of my life in Birmingham, Alabama, I decided to move to Bellingham, Washington in the summer of 2013.

As I told family and friends I was moving, the one thing they said every time was, “Wow that’s a big change.”

I guess they were stating the obvious; Bellingham is practically a polar opposite to Birmingham in almost every way. I’m unsure if I initially decided  to create this book as a means to document the places I would visit along the way, or something to work on to distract me as I got adjusted to that “big change.” Either way, it was one of the most rewarding times I have had as a photographer, and I visited some incredible locations.

The book is sectioned into the 8-day cross country trip from Birmingham to Bellingham and the first weeks of living in the Pacific Northwest exploring my new home. I am presenting the photographs to you with a little bit of background of where I travelled, while letting the images speak for themselves.

words Ryan Russell

Continental Obscura: From Birmingham to Bellingham is out now from No Sleep Records