Slow Food
Lansing Roots
I pour my heart into my work regardless of what I am doing. A good photographs makes you feel. When I start a project, I think about what a subject’s story means to me and if I can relay that feeling in a photograph, I have done my job. I can’t tell you how excited I was when an email Lansing Roots showed up in my inbox.
Lansing Roots is a really wonderful program within Greater Lansing Food Bank (GLFB). This group help farmers market the food they grow. They place food at farmers markets around the State and supports farmers with infrastructure so they can grow what they want without hinderances. Farmers get a 1/4 acre incubator plots to start. As they come back for a few seasons, they scale up to bigger plots. In addition to these resources, the farmers also have a demonstration fair and workshops.
To better tell the story of the Lansing Roots program, they needed photography to humanize all the stakeholders. When they asked me to help tell their story, my mind was abuzz with ideas about how I could do that. I love farms and the connection farmers have to their crops. I decided to share the vegetables these farmers grow along lifestyle portraits of them on their respective Lansing Roots plots.
I brought a small polaroid camera with me to this shoot. I knew that these busy farmers were making time for us and I wanted them to leave with a small token of my appreciation for their time. After this project, I made carrying around this polaroid a pretty regular practice.
