A Sum of One: Being In-Focus from an Arrangement of Places Traveled

A Sum of One is a compilation of photographs from nine years of travel to six continents. While the photographs (landscapes, streets, people, and abstract) are a documentation, their existence is deeply personal and contemplative to the photographer. The courage to take the journey outward leads to a healing journey inward by the emotional connectivity and embraceable response received. The journey, chances for illumination and cultural tributes aim to create a positive stimulus of growth in the reader.

Derek Schrock is a world traveler and self-taught photographer who picked up the medium as a means of companionship while wandering solo to far reaching lengths. Unfulfilled by the road taken, quietly a divided soul, strapping a backpack across six continents under sheltering reign was a mend to his being. The wild landscapes, happening streets and endearing faces in different places cradled scopes of cultural significance which were the influential callings, contrasts and medicine from where he found himself. A modern-day hunter and gatherer of the soul, seeking his unknown while remaining in an attractive state of anonymity, provided the intimate understanding he so valued - all with a camera present and focus to balance. Undeclared on a photographic style, just going with a heart on full tilt, just photographing the world with gut instinct - an accumulation of images emerged that embodied self-reflection. A Sum of One: Being In-Focus from An Arrangement of Places Traveled is his debut photography book.