62 new york | december 23, 2019–january 5, 2020
Sleeping in the wilds of a Bed-Stuy backyard
gets analog-camera guru
Kyle Depew into nature. (It saves on rent, too.)by wendy goodman
Yur t L ife
STYLING BY WENDY GOODMAN: PLAID BLANKET FROM RALPH LAUREN, PILLOWS FROM PARACHUTE, RED AND GREEN BLANKETS FROM JOHN DERIAN.yle depew moved to New York a decade ago from Philadelphia with friends
“to see what I could make of myself here.” After working with the Impossible
Project, which sells Polaroid film, he started Brooklyn Film Camera, repairing
and selling vintage cameras out of a Bushwick co-working space. (Every Sat-
urday through May, Brooklyn Film Camera sets up shop in the Whitney
Museum lobby, where visitors can get their eight-by-ten-inch Polaroid portrait made
on a wooden field camera.) None of that pays well, so a low overhead is important. He
once paid $250 a month to live in “ostensibly a large closet turned into a room” in
Bushwick. Later, he helped found “an intentional community called Koz Collective”
with eight housemates who occupied a Bed-Stuy brownstone; that lasted roughly six
years. Depew helped forage for its food in restaurant and bodega dumpsters. Mean-
while, in the building next door, Tim White, a projectionist and filmmaker, had been
thinking about ways to free up space in his garden apartment to do his creative work.
On a 2006 trip to Oregon, he’d stayed in a yurt; ten years later, after looking online,
he ordered Lodge-Tech’s smallest yurt. It cost about $2,000 and took a couple of
months to figure out how to assemble. White slept in it for a while, then rented it to
Depew (who pays $475 a month, which includes access to the indoor facilities). As for
dating? “It’s always something I mention early on. I guess I look at it as a bit of a vetting
filter; anyone who would inherently feel uncomfortable with the yurt is probably
someone I wouldn’t be too compatible with anyway,” Depew says. “I love having a
connection to nature in a city where that is kind of difficult, and I mean that very liter-
ally. The last thing I do every night is walk through the open air. If it’s raining, I’ll feel
the rain on my head, and if it’s snowing, I’ll tiptoe through the snow.” ■KOutside
Kyle Depew and Tim White
dug a firepit that allows for
a small campfire on cooler nights.ADVANCED FORM ADTRANSMITTED
________ COPY ___ DD ___ AD ___ PD ___ EIC2619STR_Design Hunting_Yurt [Print]_36389203.indd 62 12/13/19 3:41 PM62 newyork| december23,2019–january5, 2020Sleepingin thewildsof a Bed-Stuybackyard
getsanalog-cameraguru
Kyle Depewintonature.(It saveson rent,too.)bywendygoodmanYur t L ifeSTYLING BY WENDY GOODMAN: PLAID BLANKET FROM RALPH LAUREN, PILLOWS FROM PARACHUTE, RED AND GREEN BLANKETS FROM JOHN DERIAN.yledepewmovedto New Yorka decadeago fromPhiladelphia with friends
“to see what I could make of myself here.” After working with the Impossible
Project, which sells Polaroid film, he started Brooklyn Film Camera, repairing
and selling vintage cameras out of a Bushwick co-working space. (Every Sat-
urday through May, Brooklyn Film Camera sets up shop in the Whitney
Museum lobby, where visitors can get their eight-by-ten-inch Polaroid portrait made
on a wooden field camera.) None of that pays well, so a low overhead is important. He
once paid $250 a month to live in “ostensibly a large closet turned into a room” in
Bushwick. Later, he helped found “an intentional community called Koz Collective”
with eight housemates who occupied a Bed-Stuy brownstone; that lasted roughly six
years. Depew helped forage for its food in restaurant and bodega dumpsters. Mean-
while, in the building next door, Tim White, a projectionist and filmmaker, had been
thinking about ways to free up space in his garden apartment to do his creative work.
On a 2006 trip to Oregon, he’d stayed in a yurt; ten years later, after looking online,
he ordered Lodge-Tech’s smallest yurt. It cost about $2,000 and took a couple of
months to figure out how to assemble. White slept in it for a while, then rented it to
Depew (who pays $475 a month, which includes access to the indoor facilities). As for
dating? “It’s always something I mention early on. I guess I look at it as a bit of a vetting
filter; anyone who would inherently feel uncomfortable with the yurt is probably
someone I wouldn’t be too compatible with anyway,” Depew says. “I love having a
connection to nature in a city where that is kind of difficult, and I mean that very liter-
ally. The last thing I do every night is walk through the open air. If it’s raining, I’ll feel
the rain on my head, and if it’s snowing, I’ll tiptoe through the snow.” ■K
Outside
Kyle Depew and Tim White
dug a firepit that allows for
a small campfire on cooler nights.