Mickelle sits down with American photographer Darren Smith, House of Peregrine’s Featured Artist for 2025–26, to explore Mayflies—his New Coffeetable  book which compiles portraits from gatherings and festivals  like Burning Man, Milkshake, and Día de los Muertos. 

Darren’s roaming studio, giving us Irving Penn vibes, invites his subjects to step out of spectacle for a moment during the event and into intimacy, revealing the entire persona and allows us a window into these events and the people who are “dancing on every possible surface”

During the interview they cover Darren’s peregrine path from small-town Virginia to Australia, New York, France, and Amsterdam; assisting the late fashion photographer Stan Shaffer; and the ethics and consent practices that make Mayflies a true collaboration. Darren shares how removing context (but leaving wristbands) deepens the story, and how curating 1,000+ portraits became an act of restraint, devotion, and trust.

In this episode:

• The making of Mayflies and the art of “chosen” identities

• A mobile studio: turning chaos into intimacy

• Ethics, consent, and collaborating with emerging communities

• Editing a thousand portraits into a living book

• Expat life, impermanence, and raising a third-culture kid in the Netherlands

  
  

Connect:Darren Smith: mayfliesbook.com • IG @mayfliesbookHouse of Peregrine: houseofperegrine.comShop: Mayflies coming soon to the HOP Marketplace

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