Happy 2022, friends! How are you all doing? It was an insanely busy end of the year and an already crazy start to 2022…but I’m happy to slow down a little this morning and share a personal project that I did at the end of the year last year. Long ago, a wise friend had taught me the importance of personal work - no matter how long you’ve photographed, make sure to shoot for yourself, try new things, and keep practicing and that’s how you will stay creatively fresh, happy, and ready for new projects. I’ve never forgotten that advice.
With the pandemic and the feeling that I was doing the same thing all the time, I decided I needed to do a personal project. Since moving to Ventura County from Washington D.C. in 2017, I was fascinated by the large swaths of agricultural areas that I drove by all the time. It made me wonder how these farms operated…how in the world did they harvest ALL those cabbages? And having studied environmental science for my master’s, worked on drought issues, worked at a water district and served as the Ventura River Watershed Coordinator for a brief period of time, I gained a deeper appreciation and curiosity for the agricultural community and the work that they do, day in and day out. It is no surprise that the agricultural community is often labeled the “bad guys” in water conservation but truly California water policy is a scary beast of a topic of discussion that would take years to explain and untangle. But in the years that I’ve worked in that water space, what I do see is that as with all things in life, one-size fits all labels are often wrong. What I have seen up close is that many in the Ag community try their best to do the right thing. And unlike some people’s perception that the Ag community does whatever they like, their work is subjected to many rules and regulations - EPA standards and water allocations…in addition to the unpredictability of weather and the changing climate. But the thing that baffles me so much is there seems to be very little appreciation of the people who farm our lands to grow food for us. It feels that sometimes because it is so easy to drive to Trader Joes or whichever grocery store we go to to put kale and strawberries in our grocery baskets, that we’ve forgotten that humans had to grow these things and harvest it. People bend their backs even on hot, hot days, to pluck each strawberry or cut each stem of flower, so that we can enjoy it. And I think this was why I wanted to do this project - I wanted to see a farm up close and document some of the things I saw and if I was lucky, perhaps even some of the people who worked there. Here are some of my favorite images from my morning at Carranza Farm, I hope you enjoy these tidbits. And if you can, support your local farmers, they are truly an over looked group of people who do so much to keep our communities nourished. Have a good day!
Special thanks to Jenny at Carranza Farm who was so generous to let me roam around the farm and photograph.
Film nerd info: Kodak Portra 400
Hello! I am a Ventura County family and newborn photographer. I also work with small businesses in Ventura County and Los Angeles County on branding and commercial photography projects and specialize in telling the stories of small businesses from a documentary perspective. If you have a story you’d like to share with your audience, then reach out and I would love to talk to you about how I can help.
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