BY: JOHNATHAN MOSS
Cabin Porn images courtesy Little, Brown and Company, © 2015 by Zachary Klein
In the middle of windswept plains, embedded within a staggering mountain view sits a cabin so beautiful that it could have stained the bed sheets of Henry David Thoreau. Pack an extra pair of underwear, because this is the cabin of your wet dreams. Perhaps this is why the blog and book, that has collected hundreds of luscious photos of nature hideaways, was aptly named Cabin Porn.
Designer and co-founder of Vimeo, Zach Klein, needed to step out of the blue cast of his computer screen, and decided to purchase 55 acres of untouched tranquility in upstate New York. There, he spends time with family and friends building a cabin of his own while basking in the unplugged and undemanding wilderness. To keep motivated during the project, Klein started collecting photos of his favourite Nature retreats and began posting them in the blog Cabin Porn, which has recently been curated into a book published by Little Brown with the help of Noah Kalina. He hopes this will inspire people to tie up their boots and step into the crisp scent of freedom that only the smell of dirt and pine trees can release.
Grotli, Norway by Anka Lamprecht and Lukas Wezel
The blog has had over 12 million visitors in the past year and frequently Klein is overloaded with emails of users who claim that merely staring at a photo of a rustic cabin in the woods is therapeutic. This claim however is not far removed from the basement-dwelling mentality of Porn-hub subscribers; just simply replace the glistening ass of Jenna Jameson with the sweet voluptuous breasts of Mother Nature. Though spending time crafting alternative existence is something we should all take part in, we cannot let our cabin fantasies remain as midnight photo binges.
Klein says that for him Cabin Porn “was never a fantasy. My friends and I were out there doing it.”
Sandpoint, ID by Noah Kalina. The builder chose western larch, a strong, slow-growing species.
Disconnecting is essential to maintaining sanity in our technology and cubicle ridden world, sometimes it is nice to turn off my 8 a.m., “rustling trees and autumn mist” alarm tone, ditch the cellphone, and go experience the actual thing.
The truth is that idealism is not the enemy of realism, as long as it is tempered with action. The book provides you a goal to work towards, and Klein has opened up a school at Beaver Brooke, where those interested in going off grid can learn self-reliance and how to build a house from scratch in only a few days. The best part he says, is that building a cabin is affordable – in Upstate New York you can buy an acre of land for a mere three thousand dollars.
House in Oberwiesenthal, Germany by Sebastian Heise
The overwhelming interest in Cabin Porn proves that the white picket fence and the high-pressure job, facets of the supposed “American dream”, are dead. You can truly be happy with less.
Sometimes a few humble days in nature are better than sex. On my last trip to Yosemite Valley, I stepped out of a blue lake and stood naked, staring at the rolling mountains far off into the horizon. There was a gentle wind rolling through the valley, and I felt the breath of Mother Nature breeze upon my balls; it sure as hell wasn’t porn, it was pure unadulterated intimacy.
Kulusuk, East Greenland by Haukur Sigurdsson
Germany, near the Austrian border by Maria Polyakova
Prefabricated cabin with solar panels, as well as septic and rainwater tanks, in Tintaldra, Australia by Jaime Diaz-Berrio
Boathouse on the Obersee in Bavaria, Germany by Jenn and Willie Witte
A magical cabin converted from a water mill by Brice Portolano. A Serbian painter built several wooden cabins along this river in the Bosnian village of Zelenkovac, transforming the mills that belonged to his father.
Beaver Brook, NY by Noah Kalina
A 200-year-old stacked stone home in Linescio Switzerland by Ruedi Walti. Renovated in 2011 by Buchner Bründler Architekten, the exterior was left untouched; the interior was reconstructed layer by layer with poured concrete.
Pine Valley, CA by Noah Kalina. Lumber was cut and milled on site. All of the tools were packed in, hand carried, or carted by wheelbarrow.
The first, and smaller, of two hand-built yurts on the property in Keene, NY by Noah Kalina
Deer Isle, ME by Noah Kalina. To fertilize the soil, the couple covers garden beds with seaweed harvested from the seashore. Along with chickens, the couple also raises pigs.
Germany, near the Austrian border by Maria Polyakova
Cabin Porn images courtesy Little, Brown and Company, © 2015 by Zachary Klein
Image sourcing: featureshoot.com
