What’s good, I’m Derrick!

Archival Live began with a question I couldn’t shake:
What’s worth paying attention to before it disappears?

I’m a documentary-minded storyteller drawn to people who shape their environments and build lives rooted in craft and care—makers, bakers, musicians, artists, builders. People who don’t just make things, but make places feel alive while doing it.

My work lives at the intersection of documentary, archive, and lived experience. I believe less in perfection and more in presence. Give me less “content,” give me more connection. I believe the most meaningful stories happen in conversation, in process, in the quiet moments between milestones.

Archival Live is my way of slowing things down long enough to notice the work, the rituals, the process, and the people behind them—before they’re flattened by feeds or forgotten by time.

Drawing on my background in documentary work, I use video, photography, writing, and audio to document those carving their own paths, often outside traditional systems of validation or success. What emerges is a record of what they do, but most importantly: how they live.

This project is equal parts documentation and invitation:
to look closer,
to listen longer,
and to remember that culture is something we create together.

If you’re someone building something real—something physical, relational, and alive with soul—I’d love to collaborate!