kodak medium format film image of red and yellow tulips in Holland, MI.

CAMP
BEAR LAKE

There's something about a Northern Michigan Summer - something that keeps you coming back. It never seems to change. Everything is always as you left it.

A narrative for a real place, and the

BRAND INSPIRATION

that inspired the feeling

Imagery, words, and a nostalgia for the old that inspires the wedding photographer behind...

The SMITH BRIAN

Tullips on Kodak color film, shot with a Hasselblad, at the tullip festival in Holland,MI

A love of the old, the intentional, and the well made

If 'born in the wrong generation' were a sincere feeling, Bear Lake you bring me home.

Bear Lake school forest sign, photographed on medium format film with a Hasselblad 202FA camera.

A model poses in vintage fashion with an Australian Shepherd dog, on yellow leash, surrounded by vintage relics of a 1970s cabin.

A vintage fashion editorial on film in a 1970s cabin in Bear Lake, Michigan.

Riley models with my Australian Shepherd, Oliver, and a collection of old things in this vintage fashion editorial in Bear Lake, Michigan. Photographed by Michigan fashion and film photographer on kodak 35mm Portra 400, set in a 1970s cabin by the water.

Opposite

Riley, Olly and Things at The Cottage

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2021

A red 1980's honda spree moped in the middle of the road with Bear Lake, Michigan behind it, photographed in color on kodak 35mm film.

from,
the editor

My love of old things hasn't always felt so tangible, so literal. The appreciation has always been there, but it took time for it to manifest in design, in tastes and in the way I approach and live my life. It took leaving a career in engineering and design to take a step back and appreciate the beauty of something well built - something lasting.

Camp Bear Lake is the discovery of that love and appreciation. It was, and continues to be, my ethos for building a life where influence and inspiration are daily and the sources are plenty.

Smith Brian

black and white film image of a little boy running through the water in bear lake michigan

How did
we
get here?

Dedicated to Everett "Smitty" Smith

Bear Lake was my home away from home - a small cottage, in a small town that served as an escape for generations of my family. The cottage is a 1960s/1970s time capsule. Appliances are old, but beautiful - in a way that you would expect from the era. The floor is carpeted in a shag-like spattering of earth tones - browns and creams. No AC, no efficient heat for the winter, just open windows and the constant cool breeze, drafting in from Lake Michigan, just a few miles down the road. Each little detail in construction was hand finished by my grandfather - a woodworker, an engineer, affectionately "Smitty" to everyone that knew and admired him. He's one of my life's greatest inspirations. The cottage walls are adorned with wood paneling, paneling which mimics the look of hardwood boards of varying widths, but in actuality is comprised of hardwood, plywood boards with staggered channels routed along it's length. This little detail fools even the most astute observer and so perfectly represents my grandfather. He was artful, but practical - a hundred years of lived history and a WWII veteran. There isn't a cottage within eyesight that my grandfather's hands haven't touched, lending a hand in repairs, engaging in curiosities, or a simple act of companionship. My family has 70 years of history in Bear Lake, Michigan. It was always my dream to live there. When I left my engineering career to pursue photography and a life of travel, it became a priority to spend my summers up in Northern Michigan, in this small town called Bear Lake. Camp Bear Lake is my editorialized depiction of a place. It's how this small cottage in a small town feels to me and how it inspires me. It's the representation of a life where everything provides influence - where the lines between work and play become idealistically blurred.

by Smith Brian

A vertical triptych of 3 black and white, panoramic 35mm film frames from a Hasselblad Xpan camera.

Somewhere

Grainy, Hasseblad xpan 35mm film panorama in Bear Lake, Michigan

Up

Hasselblad xpan 35mm film, black and white panorama of Petoskey stones

North

Bear Lake, Michigan baseball field dugout on color, medium format film shot with a Hasselblad.

Bear Lake, Michigan on medium format Kodak film.

Bear Lake, Michigan school forest and baseball fields, photographed on medium format Kodak Portra 400 film with a Hasselblad 202FA camera.

In An olD Town

By the shores of
Lake Michigan

Once a thriving timber village, built along the tracks of Northern Michigan's logging railroads, she is now a sleepy town with tattered and scarred buildings and a brief few months where the weather is just right to spend your Summer. Bear Lake is charming in it's solitude and it's unassuming reality. It is all, just so, perfectly sincere.

Opposite

Bear Lake Baseball Fields

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2021

A little tykes, red and blue children's slide and toys scattered across a lakefront yard in Bear Lake, Michigan. Photographed in color on square, medium format film with a Hasselblad 202FA.

Above

Nephew, Thriving

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2024

Left

Idle, Summer Toys

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2024

An old, rusted basketball hoop in the middle of an overgrown yard of grass and captured on medium format, Ektar 100 film with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II camera.

Opposite

Old Basketball Hoop, Unkempt Yard

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2024

Apple crates and shipping boxes stacked in a Bear Lake, Michigan orchard field and captured on medium format, Ektar 100 film with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II camera.

Above, Left

Local Apple Orchard, Storage Containers

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2022

A large, detached garage barn in a field in Bear Lake, Michigan Captured on medium format, Ektar 100 film with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II camera.

Above, Left

RV Garage, Clinton Rd.

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2024

An old, rusted clothing line in a Bear Lake, Michigan yard captured on medium format, Ektar 100 film with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II camera.

Above, Right

Clothes Line, Clinton Rd.

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2024

Sunset patches of light on fall color trees in Bear Lake, Michigan. Captured on medium format, Ektar 100 film with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II camera.

Above, Left

Fall Foliage, Dappled Sunset Light

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2024

Above, Right

Winnebago, Stationary

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2024

A parked, vintage Winnebago in Northern Michigan, amongst fall color trees, Captured on medium format, Ektar 100 film with a Mamiya RZ67 Pro II camera.

Below

Apollo 17 Astronauts, Moon Rover, Red Rover

LOCATION: The Apollo Archives, Bear Lake Michigan

A triptych of square format film images shot with a Hasselblad camera. Two images are of the Apollo 17 moon landing. The middle image is a vintage, 1990 BMW 325is parked in front of a Bear lake, Michigan cottage.

The sun, near total eclipse, peers through the clouds in Charleston, South Carolina. Photographed on Kodak 35mm film.

To The Apollo Moon Landing,

You've always felt so antique, so preliminary to modern understanding - yet, you are original and un-matched. Your quality and achievement has never been replicated. Your images are precedent to how we view our world, our Pale Blue Dot, amongst the stars. You are so very...

Camp Bear Lake

Large format film, editorial, black and white portrait of a model in Traverse City, Michigan wearing vintage LL Bean

Nasa archives, Apollo 17 moon landing film image

Diptych featuring a film image of Apollo 17 moon landing from the NASA archives and a Large Format film portrait, in black and white, of a Michigan model wearing LLB Bean fashion.

Above

COMING SOON: Apollo x TSB

LOCATION: Bear Lake Michigan, The Apollo Archives,

To Discovery,

with love

A girl holds a guitar overhead, where vintage Levi's clothing in a Bear Lake Michigan fashion editorial.

Don't Give Up. Go for the Dream

Persistence ages like discovery, like Astronauts setting foot on new worlds.

Riley, LVC, an Heirloom Guitar, One Dream

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Summer 2020

1909-michigan-fashion-levis-vintage-clothing-inspired-advertisement-lookbook-musician-0002

Levi's Vingage Clothing fashion editorial shot in Bear Lake, Michigan with a girl laughing and lying on the ground.

Black and white 35mm film frame with a light leak of a girl in Levi's Vintage Clothing in Bear Lake, Michigan

White Sands national park, black and white, grainy 35mm film image of a csecent moon over the desert.

A girl peers through a window, holding a guitar, in a Levi's Vintage Clothing inspired fashion editorial in Bear Lake, Michigan.

A model holds a guitar and looks out the window of a run down, abandoned bank building in Bear Lake, Michigan in this black and white 35mm film frame from a vintage fashion editorial.

A vintage fashion editorial in Bear lake, Michigan with LVC clothing.

A Northern Michigan fashion editorial inspired by Levi's Vintage Clothing.

A model plays a guitar, wearing a striped vintage dress, in an abandoned bank building in Northern Michigan

35mm film frame of a girl in a vintage dress from a Bear Lake, Michigan fashion editorial inspired by LVC clothing.

Images By: Smith Brian

Featuring: Riley Barnett

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Sumer 2020

Purple and white daisies in a flower field in Northern Michigan, captured on Kodak 35mm film.

A Bit Personal

Polaroid from a vintage fashion editorial at the Bear Lake, Michigan baseball field. Model wears a vintage BSA wool jacket.

To Belong, Anywhere

Where do you go when you lack a sense of belonging?

Having spent years distancing myself from the life I was building, I quit my job, I packed my bags, and I spent my 29th birthday in Tokyo, Japan. The next few years were spent doing, largely, the same. A notification for a cheap flight would pop up in my inbox, and soon I'd be off to another part of the world. For all intents and purposes I was unemployed. I worked for years as an engineer but never anticipated so quickly falling out with the life I was living. I left it all behind with little savings to fall back on. All I had was an upstart photography business that I had quickly fallen in love with, and a desire to see the world. Nearly broke, spending a few months in Thailand here, a few weeks in Scandinavia there, I'm not sure I've ever been happier.

Vintage fashion editorial photographed on metallic red frame polaroids with blue tint, in Northern Michigan by film, fashion photographer Smith Brian.

Red frame polaroids from a lifestyle editorial campaign in Northern Michigan.

Metallic, red frame polaroids from a lifestyle editorial with vintage, wool Boy Scouts of America, shot in Northern Michigan.

A blue merle Australian Shepherd dog digging through feet of snow durin a Northern Michigan winter.

Above, Left

Olly in Snow

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Winter, 2018

A vintage, red 1990 BMW 325is stuck in the snow and covered in a drift captured on 35mm film in Northern Michigan.

Above, Right

Old BMW, Stranded

LOCATION: Bear Lake, Michigan, Winter, 2018

In between all the travels, I spent one winter up in Bear Lake, Michigan. I had still been living in Charleston, South Carolina, when my friend and roommate decided he wanted his house to himself. He, too, was going through a lot of life changes and I always understood his need to reset and live on his own. I packed up what little remained of my belongings, and former life, and loaded it into my 1990 BMW 325is - a television, an inflatable mattress, some clothes, just enough cameras to run a photography business, and my best friend and companion since 4 weeks on this earth, Oliver. Oliver is my Blue Merle, Australian Shepherd. I first met him, upside down in the palm of my hand, when he was just 4 weeks old. He's been the only constant in my life, ever since and I love him dearly for it.

The winter of 2018, I drove that old BMW on slick, summer tires from Charleston, SC to Dayton, OH. I set off from Dayton to Bear Lake, Michigan and made it about 5 miles from home when my car shut off, mid drive. A dead alternator had put my adventure on pause. It took me a few days to troubleshoot and receive the part. I replaced it one afternoon, then I was off the next day - during what would become one of the worst snowstorms Michigan had seen in years. It took me about 12 hours to make the 7 hour drive, limping my car along through a Blizzard, white knuckled and desperately trying to avoid getting stuck in the middle of nowhere on some country road. Oliver could sense my tension from the backseat. I finally made it to the cottage in Bear Lake and skid the car to a stop where it would sit for the next two weeks, as a daily foot of snow kept it buried in place.

I was only there for 3 weeks, but it was an experience that had a lasting impact on me. It was chaotic. Every morning I had to shovel my way out of the cottage after 12" of overnight snow. I'd take Oliver on long hikes, bounding neck deep through the powder - I've never seen him so happy. We walked along the frozen edges of Lake Michigan, slowly building up a wall of ice with the tides of frozen water and fresh snow. I felt like I was in another world. That winter taught me a lot about embracing the unpredictable and just going with the flow of where life takes you. Looking back it feels like the starting point to where I am now and what I've become. It feels a bit like the origin story to an idea that would eventually become Camp Bear Lake.

After that blistering winter in 2018, my time in Bear Lake has largely been spent in the warmer seasons. Each Summer, Oliver and I head north for a few months of reset. These months on the lake have led to a lot of introspection, imagination and creative exploration. I find constant inspiration in the age and consistency of everything around me. Largely unchanged since the 1970s, the cottage feels like a time capsule of my childhood. Stepping through the front door, every time, feels like setting foot in a memory. It feels like reassurance and it smells like a freedom to safely explore - like that unmistakable smell of a grandparent's home arriving with nothing on the agenda but to play. Bear Lake has given me so much time and so much inspiration to reflect on my own life and what is truly important.

Simply putting this reflection and introspection into words, felt inadequate to do justice to the feeling of Bear Lake and what it means to me and my own journey through life. After all, Bear Lake is something so tangible. It's a sensory time capsule to those before me and those after me. Camp Bear Lake is my attempt to transform this tiny cottage into a guide for finding inspiration in life. It's a narrative, an ode to the art of simplicity and a conceptual guide to visual representation of a feeling.

Bear Lake has taught me to embrace finding inspiration in the every day. The chrome trim of the appliances, the thermostats, the old clocks, the wood paneling, the olive green vinyl seats and astroturf carpeting in the 70's Glastron speedboat - individually, they are all quite simple details and easy to overlook in this busy and complex life. When I take the time to appreciate them, I find them beautiful. On their own, they represent something lasting, something with intention and purpose. Collectively, they represent something greater. They represent ideas and experiences that go back 60 years. They represent creating the feeling of home, away from home. That is what I have found in Bear Lake - something I have, at times unknowingly, been searching for my entire life - that sense of belonging wherever you go and whatever you pursue in life. For me, I've learned, a sense of belonging comes from constantly seeking inspiration. If you can find inspiration in the every day, you'll never run dry of creativity, you'll never run out of ways to occupy your time. Most importantly, you'll never lack motivation and means to find purpose in life. Before beginning my journey into photography, I tried to find purpose in work - moving around through engineering jobs, longing to find the passion to be happy about heading into the office each day. Since those days of 9-5, I've learned to discover purpose and a work to match. Photography changed me and photography changes with me. I've learned to embrace the chaos and unpredictability of life and to treat everything, big and small, that inspires me with equal weight - this feeling, is what I hope to be the lasting narrative of Camp Bear Lake. Exploring deeper, Camp Bear Lake is the merging of two worlds into one. It is a world where there is no separation of work and play. It is a world where 3 weeks and 3 feet of snow inspires my work just as much as my interactions with the people I photograph. Camp Bear Lake is home and belonging, anywhere. Camp Bear Lake is my work, my world, and my guide to living.