Weekly Posts

Jumping in

It was almost four years ago that we decided to leave New York, the place where we started our little family and lived in all the stereotypical New York situations: loud sublets, roaches, smoking neighbors, the sounds of sex in the airshaft, an endless horizon of delicious and cheap food, stuck subways, rain, heat, dog poop, walk-ups, strollers, art everywhere, wealth everywhere, crisp spring days, brisk fall days. All of it we loved, on some level, but we wanted a change. That change came from the least expected place and has, unknowingly, happily landed us where we are today. There are two people who were the catalysts for all this—Diane Abrams (Kate's colleague at Gourmet and now our fantastic book editor) and Mary Taylor Simeti, (writer, activist, farmer). Their kindness and generosity of time and spirit led us to Sicily. We can go on and on about our experiences there (or you could just scroll through our old blog), but for this post we just want to thank them, and feel grateful that we know them. Below are a few pics of Mary's land, perched high above the Gulf of Castellammare. They grow organic vegetables, olives and grapes on the 40 acres of Bosco Falconeria. Her family is making some of the best wine we had in Sicily. You should visit them.

cell 4cell 7

cell1 cell 5

10,000 hours

Back in December, we spent two and a half crazy weeks developing and photographing 50 recipes for Food & Wine's online site. It was actually fun, and the creative and physical challenge really inspired us, in that Malcolm Gladwell–10,000 hours sort of way. Food & Wine just started to post the recipes and photos to their site, and we are thrilled that they have asked us to do more! So if you live nearby, or are thinking of visiting, here's some advice: April would be a good time to pop in, you'll eat well. And often. These are some outtakes that we particularly like from the first go-round. See all the recipes and pics here. We would love to hear if anyone cooks these recipes--if you do, let us know. Comment on F&W and/or take a picture and post it on our Facebook or your Instagram so we can check it out!

option3

option1

option2

(un)intentional

When Guy and I met, I remember being surprised by a collection of dried-up tea bags tacked up along one wall of his kitchen. A tiny art installation, made of an ordinary thing that I had thrown out thousands of time, turned lovely by focus... One of my favorite food photos that Guy ever took was a Polaroid of two pomegranates that had sat on the windowsill above the sink for too long. They had dried in the New Mexico sun, becoming wizened maracas. But their dusky color stayed true, darkening only a little with age...

Our fridge is always overflowing, so most fruit stays out, surrounding us in bowls and on plates, masquerading as centerpieces. Stuck on shelves near the water glasses. Usually the fruit gets eaten in time, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes it gets fed to the chickens, sometimes it gets tossed, and sometimes it keeps sitting there, becoming very old and turning into something completely new.

Final 2-20-14

the birthday party

Kate and I love a party. But I have to face it, since I met Kate my involvement with planning parties and making the food has lessened proportionally to the years we have been together. But for this party (a surprise for Kate) I was on my own. (Full disclosure: I did have the help of the calm, wonderful and talented Mr. Andrew Nowick, who helped immeasurably. And, with his husband, hosted the party at their house. That is him in the second black and white pic below.) So, after this party, I am ready to get back in the party game. I've always loved the details, the cooking (all those little beautiful moments), planning, writing little notes to the guests on their to go cookie bags, picking the right platters, and even planning for people to do readings or say a little something (you never know what you are going to get and are always happily surprised).  And then, of course, there is the spending time with friends. Since I did not even try to document the party, I was actually able to spend some time talking and catching up. There are ways that photography makes you super present, you are always paying attention, but in reality it takes me out of the human moment of talking and sharing with friends which I wanted to be fully in that evening. Fortunately Mr. Christopher Gifford brought his new A7 camera and took these wonderful black and white pics. Thanks Chris!

So, to the next party. See you there.

option_6

option_4

Outtakes: Applegate

The past few weeks we have been shooting a lot for Applegate. Looking through the library of images we came across many pictures that may never see the light of a computer screen but that we think are interesting and fun: details, trays of ingredients, raw chicken, kooky old animal toys… Sorry, no intellectual or art historical reference this week (I’m sure that’s why you keep reading this blog!). Well, OK, I guess there might be some reference to abstract and found art in here, (Rothko, John Chamberlain) so enjoy. 1

 

2

 

3

I'll Be Your Mirror

This past year I shot a bunch of weddings for our dear friends’ company, Weddings By Two. After a few years of not photographing weddings (and with Kate's encouragement), I felt ready to do it again with a new perspective and more of a focus on portraits. I really did not have a plan in mind other than that I wanted to make pictures I was happy with and that were compelling to me. Two things happened: I started having fun shooting and I unknowingly started making diptychs of the couples. These simple, straightforward portraits ended up being some of my favorite pictures I have made in the last two or three years. So over the next couple weeks (mixed in with what is happening food-wise), we will do a few posts showing some of these portraits. For this first post, I am starting with a photograph I took just last week of a lovely couple I found at a thrift shop. These paintings made me have an ah ha moment. I realized that old paintings like this were in the back of my head while making all these wedding portraits. In fact, for years I have wanted to take poses from well-known paintings and recreate them in photographs. In a way, not consciously at the time, I did that. (Life never works out quite as planned.)

Casting back even further into my cloudy memory, I now remember quite distinctly being at the Frick in New York, in the room with four James Abbott McNeill Whistler paintings. There are two dark and moody ones, one being Arrangement in Black and Gold, Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac and two very light and bright ones, including Harmony in Pink and Grey (Portrait of Lady Meux) . The contrast between them creates a wonderful tension. Their gaze, the blending of the figure and the background, his super-light, painterly touch that (especially in the black painting) verges on and literally influences the minimalist movement in painting that was to come... I love everything about them.

And here is yet another layer to love about these paintings: Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, the subject of Arrangement in Black and Gold is believed to be the man upon whom Oscar Wilde based the novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. And that is just the thing about a portrait—it holds the subject in time, in a moment. Hopefully, it is a lovely moment that has equal parts beauty, intensity, meaning and longevity. I can't claim all my portraits capture this or that I even try to capture it in all of them. But when I do, it makes me happy to be making pictures.

Take a look, let us know what you think.

Here are the portraits of the lovely couple at the thrift shop juxtaposed with portraits I made of Eric and Julie.

untitled-11

And here are two more portraits. The top one is of Cynthia and Arnava and the bottom one is of Beniamino and Magali.Untitled-5

Zeros and Ones

What are Kate and Guy doing this week? A lot really, but I was just thinking.... What is Photography now? I am not going to get too intellectual about this or too romantic about it either. Making pictures has changed dramatically since I started making them in my little basement darkroom back in 1987 or so. (Yes, I admit it, I was in the darkroom from infancy!) But what does it really mean to make a picture, to represent something. John Berger foresaw Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook etc.. in his book Ways of Seeing (check out this short video) It is this inundation of imagery, this constant communication and need for attention that I am curious about. It is a double need—one is that you want the attention and another is a nagging feeling you need the attention to keep up, to stay relevant. Then we fight against it. I hear all the time that people are quitting Facebook or giving up email. We also see a whole lot of people just making stuff by hand. Artisanal is the hip code word for it. And Kate and I try to keep that as part of our daily life, too. But of course to sell the handmade stuff you must be connected in some way (even if it means you fain disdain for the internet), but then we hope to get written about and linked to for being such a recluse. Then you blow up and are selling everything online. I really do not judge it any more, one way or the other. I just see it as truly one of the bigger struggles of our time. It is for me. It challenges me to see so many great images being made every minute with a little phone. They are images similar to the ones I struggled to make over years at the beginning my artistic practice. On another level I struggle too with the questions of value and longevity. Or are they the same question. Does a handmade black and white print have more value than an Instagram post? If an audience seeing the images adds value then there is a close battle going on.

This is all to say that while working on a book that Kate and I are doing for a publisher I made these two pictures (below) that I really liked. Last year (2013) I probably would not have shared them, but this year I have and I will continue to do so. I will also even share some of the black and white prints I made over the years, 'The Archives' so to speak, the images that were the start of my practice, a practice that is still continuing, sometimes by hand and sometimes with zeros and ones. final2

Canal House, Pronto!

Why was I surprised when Elio and I arrived at Tinicum Park and discovered that the Canal House “picnic” was actually a sit-down, mid-afternoon lunch for 100? I should have known better. Everything Christopher and Melissa create deftly balances deliciousness, comfort, class, and fun. For example, generous pours of prosecco and Ramazzotti dark and stormys; the thoughtful swaths of cheesecloth protecting the tables; fluttering garlands made from covers of their latest cookbook, Pronto. Just when I started feeling weak, knowing that I can never live up to the effortless perfection of it all, the tomato toss let loose. Kids and adults donned garbage bags and pelted each other with late-season rotten tomatoes. Elio, who unsurprisingly chose to go protection-free, couldn’t get over that the melee was for real—and adult-sanctioned. Another Canal House convert.

The Farm Dinner at Stockton Market

The season is just starting to turn—the mornings are crisp, the afternoon sun slants a little lower, our slippers are back in rotation—so it was the perfect week for Ian Knauer and Geraldine Campbell to host a harvest dinner at the Stockton Farm Market. Ian, one of Kate’s old cohorts from Gourmet, is hoping to open a cooking school soon, and the dinner was an introduction to all that is good and Ian. We volunteered to help out for the evening (and licked some plates clean behind the scenes). Favorite tastes: Ian’s gorgeous pain d’epi smeared with bacon butter (for real!) and the pure and simple salt-roasted beet puree. On our way out, we nabbed a few hunks of that crusty bread and ate it this morning with homemade Nutella and marmalade. Bring it, autumn! ian storyboard

Grilling for Applegate Farms

Capricious Mother Nature and her sun kept us guessing most of the day, but finally the light was right and we were able to dive into this grilling shoot. An old friend dropped in just as we were finishing up—always a nice way to end the week! grillingstoryboard