Just got back from Puerto Rico where I spent some much needed quality time with my grandmother… Oh and a little beach time, too.
Baba Zina rounding up her geese one evening to send them home for the night.
Taken on expedition with the American Friends of Russian Folklore in Rostov Province, Belaya Kalitva Town, Kakichev Khuter.
November colors and streams after a rain storm during the dry season.
Sabino Canyon, Coronado National Forest, Tucson, AZ.
Visiting the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum - November, 2011.
Sabino Canyon, Coronado National Forest, Tucson, AZ.
Hiking in Cochise Stronghold, Coronado National Forest, in the Dragoon Mountains of Arizona.
I’m very excited and proud to have had these two photos chosen for inclusion in a New York Photo Festival exhibition called, “Feast your Eyes.”
The first photo, “Portrait of Baba Zina in her kitchen,” was taken during my second meeting with Baba Zina and my first time in her home. Baba Zina was busy jarring tomatoes when we arrived and I had this wonderful, spontaneous opportunity to photograph her. I love this portrait because she is laughing and smiling and warm - most likely telling us something funny - but also busy working in her kitchen. This is exactly as I remember her! It’s also one of my favorite photos I’ve ever taken.
The second photo, “Marina Picking Apples,” was taken early one morning after a delicious breakfast, which Marina had cooked for us. We were about to leave on a six hour car trip west and Marina wanted us to have apples from her tree as a snack while on the road. The abundance of fruit trees growing all around us in Kakichev - apples, apricots, and berries - was nothing like I had ever seen or experienced before. I love this photo of Marina in her yard, picking apples from her tree, because it perfectly preserves that sweet memory!
Both photos were taken this summer while on expedition with the American Friends of Russian Folklore in a small, Cossack khuter (village) called Kakichev, in Rostov Province, in the south of Russia. The aim of this folklore expedition was to collect stories about witchcraft and magical spells and also to research musical traditions and record songs in the village. For me, the experience of learning about growing everything you eat, making cheese and yogurt from the milk of your own cow, preparing every meal and leaving nothing to waste; discussing food among lively and very long group meals was also as much a part of the experience as anything else. Having grown up in a suburb of New Jersey and now a city dweller for over a decade - I was fascinated by living in this small village and learning by experiencing their food culture.
“Feast your Eyes,” opens today at the Powerhouse Arena in DUMBO at 6pm and runs through January 27th.
In October I got to photograph another great event for another inspiring organization called, Little Kids Rock. LKR was created in 2002 by Elementary School teacher Dave Wish with the idea that, “learning to play a musical instrument can be a transformative experience in students’ lives, with the power to inspire the creativity and confidence that are critical to success in school and beyond.” In short, Little Kids Rock believes in the power of music to inspire kids and strives to bring free musical instruments and musical education to schools across the country. Awesome.
Pictured above is the organization’s amazing founder, Dave Wish hugging his daughter right before the evening’s program at the Edison Ballroom began, which included a live auction, a speech by Lady Gaga (who later auctioned off a diamond ring and a signed guitar!) performances by Billy Squier and Steven Van Zandt who rocked “I Don’t Want to Go Home,” with the Little Kids Rock band - just to mention a few. It was so much fun to photograph and inspiring to learn about this great organization.
Check out Little Kids Rock on Facebook to learn more.
Kids Who Give - Grand Prize Winners and Fan Favorite 2011 photographed at Dylan’s Candy Bar in New York.
Okay, a bit more on these amazing kids. First is 9 year old Ricky Springer from McDonough, GA who started Racing for a Cause, which raises money and awareness about a disease called eosinophilic colitis. Ricky wants more people to know about this disease so that more kids don’t have to go through what he did, which was see 18 different doctors before his second birthday before finally being diagnosed. So far, Racing for a Cause has educated over 2 million people and raised more than $4,000.
Seated next to Ricky is 12 year old Mariah Reynolds from Cinicinatti, OH who started three non-profits: Just One Heart, created to send Valentine’s Day cards to veterans and active servicemen and women; gLOVE One Another to collect hats, scarves and gloves for shelters, churches and schools; and Heal the Soul, which gives mp3 players and iPods to sick children. And did I mention Mariah started volunteering at age 6? She’s put in about 5,300 hours of volunteer awards so far.
And finally, 10 year old Nathan Hickey from Monrovia, CA started Mountain Biking for Pablove to show support for kids with cancer. Nathan rides his bike in races from March until September. In 2009 he raised almost $2,000 with his fundraising campaign.
To learn more you can go to kidswhogive.com
More than two months and no posts? Oh my… I need to back track to the fall because I have so much to share! So many clients with such good stories. Starting with these three!
A couple of months ago I was honored to meet and photograph three amazing kids - Ricky Springer, Mariah Reynolds and Nathan Hickey - winners of Kids Who Give; a national program sponsored by Farm Rich focused on kids who go above and beyond to give back to their communities. The grand prize - awarded to each kid for all of their hard work - was a $2,500 check for each of their charities (yes, they all started their own nonprofits!) and an all expense paid trip to New York, which included a limo ride to Dylan’s Candy Bar (where they ate pizza and got to go on a candy shopping spree!) an afternoon spent checking out dinosaurs and space rocks at the Museum of Natural History, a carriage ride through the park, and an awards dinner in a private room at Sarabeth’s. I had so much fun getting to know these kids and snapping photos of them as they went from place to place. This is one of my favorite shots, which we took outside the Museum of Natural History!
A photograph of a woman in Barcelona, Spain training for a Republican militia in August 1936, taken by Gerda Taro.
“But she soon learned how to incorporate the Valencian che into her vocabulary, and people immediately wanted to adopt her. There are people who, without even trying, are automatically loved. It’s something you’re born with, like the way you laugh as you tell a joke in a low voice. Gerda was one of those people. She could interpret each accent with the fluency of a musician improvising a new melody. Pronounce swear words with such elegant grace that she could seduce anyone. She listened with her head slightly tilted to the side, a complicit air about her, like a mischievous child. Within the feminine canon, she wasn’t especially pretty, but the war had given her a different kind of beauty; that of a survivor. “
(Currently loving Waiting for Robert Capa by Susana Fortes)
Photo: “Gerda Taro, Guadalajara Front, Spain,” July 1937, by an unknown photographer. Ms. Taro, seen by many as the first woman known to photograph a battle from the front lines and to die covering a war, survived in the public eye mostly for her romance with Robert Capa. (source: NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2007/09/21/arts/20070922_TARO_SLIDESHOW_2.html)
