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Photographers Jada and David Parrish turned their move from Richmond, Virginia, to Los Angeles into an art project: they built a handcrafted portrait set in the bed of a 2006 Toyota Tacoma and planned to carry it across the country, changing the landscape inside each frame while keeping the studio setup in place. Their latest route description puts the planned journey at about 7,500 miles, longer than the 7,000-plus-mile estimate on the project page.

How the pickup becomes a photography studio

The idea is to hold the camera, lighting and set steady, then move the truck to give the photograph a different view. Instead of building a new studio at each stop, the Parrishes use the Tacoma’s bed as a compact stage and the open landscape as part of the composition. The project brings the controlled conditions of a portrait set into contact with changing terrain, weather and daylight.

The set is a reverse forced-perspective tunnel assembled from connected, flat-like panels. Its large opening frames the landscape beyond it, so the distant view becomes part of the set rather than a separate background. As Jada Parrish put it in the duo’s build diary, “The landscape is really the final piece of the set.”

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What makes the build difficult

Strength without too much weight

A structure carried in a pickup has to fit the bed and remain practical to transport, but it also needs to hold its shape. The creators describe balancing low weight with strength and modular assembly; they say parts must support people standing and climbing on them. Their build diaries describe connected panels and name plywood and paint as materials, but do not specify a plywood grade or a complete bill of materials.

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Exposure to the elements

The set is intended to travel through conditions that can include wind, sun, temperature changes and possible rain. That means the challenge is not just making a compelling backdrop: joints, surfaces and the overall structure must cope with repeated travel and outdoor exposure. The available project descriptions do not provide engineering specifications or a tested weather rating.

Lighting the set and the view

The portraits need enough light inside the tunnel while retaining the outdoor scene beyond it. That balance changes with time of day, cloud cover and location. The creators say they chose Flashpoint lighting integrated into the set’s sides and planned to diffuse it. The cited descriptions do not name the exact lights or camera models, so they do not establish a specific equipment setup or exposure recipe.

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Where the planned route goes

The route update describes a planned itinerary of about 7,500 miles, with stops including Cape Cod, Sleeping Bear Dunes and the Great Lakes, Ozark National Forest, Great Sand Dunes, the Grand Canyon, Utah, Bonneville Salt Flats, Oregon, Big Sur and Los Angeles. Those are intended stops, not confirmation that each was reached.

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The mileage has changed as the plan developed. The creators’ project page described the trip as 7,000-plus miles and more than 25 days; a later route update and September 2026 feature described a roughly 7,500-mile plan. Both figures are creator-reported plans, not an independently verified total for a completed journey.

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From a move to an art project

The project began with a practical transition—moving from Richmond to Los Angeles—and the question of what else that trip could become. Jada Parrish summarized the impulse in her Fstoppers feature: “You really can make art out of almost anything. Sometimes you just have to look at the thing you were already going to do and ask what else it could become.” The truck and set turn that idea into a repeatable photographic constraint: keep the studio elements in place and let each location alter the image.

The creators have described daily road updates and said they intend the work to become a documentary, fine-art book and gallery exhibition. Those are announced intentions, not confirmation that the releases are available.

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