Feeding My Passion

Ok, I’m getting a little nervous again. Welcome to the roller coaster that is my photoj class.

I haven’t heard back yet from either my big organic subject, who I thought was a done deal. And the head of ForageSF, who I’m sure is a very busy guy and just hasn’t seem my email yet, hasn’t contacted me since he told me to email him once I got the letter for the next dinner. Which I did. So I don’t know exactly what’s going to happen here.

What I do know is that it isn’t happening here, in Merced. I won’t be photographing either of my remaining two portions of the essay anywhere near here, so I’ve decided to pack up everything I need to finish the class, some clothes, my web cam (not see Kamila’s face for 2 weeks? I’m tough, but I’m not that tough), and stay in Sacramento with my sister Beth and Ryan at the Hurley Farm.

Sure would love to hear from my peeps.

Finally, after a long time with no movement on my photo essay, things are finally coming together!

I got an email yesterday from ForageSF, a group that serves a foraged meal (the menus are mouth-wateringly awesome) once a month to a small group of people who are fast enough to sign up. Which I just happen to be this month, on Friday 7 May. The founder of the group has already agreed to give me access to the foraging, preparation, and consuming of this meal. Access has been the most challenging part of this essay, as it often is with any in-depth, long-term photojournalism project. So except for the photos, the “foraging” portion of the essay is waiting for me in San Francisco next week.

This evening I made pictures of a family going out to grab a fast-food meal, take it home, and eat it. I’m feeling pretty good about how it turned out, so that part is done.

And I’m probably leaving tomorrow to stay at my youngest sister’s house in Sacramento so I can photograph the “big organic” portion of the story when a subject is ready for me. While I wait for a subject, I have plenty to do besides making photos to wrap up my class which include, but aren’t limited to: Book reports, putting a portfolio together, and going through my exit interview (via Skype or phone). On Wednesday. I’ll take Amtrak and then BART into San Francisco, and check into the youth hostel near the city center, which is the closest one to the Mission district, where the foraged dinner is being held.

Then on Saturday, I head back to Sacramento, and if I haven’t made the photos for the “big organic” section yet, I’ll stay there until I do, or until 14 May, when I give David’s fantastic Nikon D200 back to him (THANK YOU DAVID!!) and head back to Merced.

Then I begin my victory lap around the west coast. You think I’m kidding?

As a very good friend of mine just said about my lack of progress on my food-related photo essay since we were in Santa Cruz much earlier this month, “Your project is kind of stale.” I don’t think she was trying to be punny, but she’s got a very playful sense of humor, so I don’t know.

That was yesterday, today is a brand new day! I’ve got access and an appointment for the “fast food” section of my photo essay on Thursday evening, kind of a naturally perfect situation. It’s a family that I met soon after I moved here (Merced, Calif.) that is very physically active (the father coaches soccer, the mother is a yoga instructor, their sons all participate in one sport or another), and like many families, they are busy, so they often grab some fast food on Thursday evening, which is their busiest day of the week, after they all get done with their soccer practice/yoga class/whatever. And there I will be, bearing witness to their meal, from discussion about where to go, to going, pickup, and partaking.

Huge load off of my mind.

And I have access, at least verbally, to the other two sections of the essay: big organic and foraged. Just waiting for the other two shoes to drop from this 4-legged creature. Stay tuned!

Day 2 on Shumei’s Santa Cruz Farm, where they use natural methods to grow produce that is beyond organic, at least organic as it is known and certified now. The friend I visited Santa Cruz with, Kamila, is a part of the Shumei organization, and I was fortunate enough to gain access and make pictures there for one of the four sections of my photo essay that is a kind of visual companion to The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan.

The Shumei organization’s natural agriculture farm in Santa Cruz, Calif., part of my photo essay on food.