Project Space Residency

Martin Krafft uses video, photography, social practice, and writing to contemplate the world and invite others into that contemplation. His work pushes for a democratization of philosophy, sharing reflections from people whose voices aren’t often heard in the public sphere. He has worked in a Catholic Worker house serving the unhoused and Death Row inmates, as an inner city teacher’s aid, on a ranch with a loving family of conspiracy theorists, and as an alternative preschool teacher, among other jobs.  He is an itinerant with roots in Owings, MD, Atlanta, GA, Tucson, AZ, Missoula, MT, Rochester, NY, and Schwenksville, PA.

As a filmmaker and photographer, I work with subjects to create a collaborative, immersive consideration of their lives. For the past two years, I have been in the process of creating a feature-length documentary, “Ain’t Got Time to Die,” that explores the experiences of my friend, Rachel Heisham, as she navigates a terminal cancer diagnosis. After meeting Rachel via a Facebook hiking group in Montana, I have become immersed in her life, meeting her family, serving as a medical advocate for her, and going on adventures with her throughout the American West. The making of the film has been a vehicle for us to deepen our bonds of friendship, in turn causing the film to reflect the joys and struggles of that friendship. I seek, through the film and alternative photographic processes, to develop a more-than-human gaze that sees Rachel in all of her fullness as a person, situated amidst the animals and environment that infuse her being.

This program is supported in part by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the New York State Legislature; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Max and Marian Farash Foundation; and Joy of Giving Something.