TexasGirl Photography

Yesterday evening, I read in Edward Weston’s second Daybook about his (temporary, I am guessing) obsession with bananas. It took me by surprise, because I thought I had seen most of his well-known work, but I’ve never seen anything he made of bananas. A quick internet search satisfied my curiosity, and made me wonder what other photographs of his I might not have seen. . . . . of course I want to see them all. I’ve never been much of a still life photographer, aside from my own temporary obsession with a huge bag of gourds we inherited from a friend a few years ago. I cyanotyped them, pinholed them, and stowed them for posterity (hung from a hook in the ceiling of the garage).

Later, reading done, I walked into the kitchen and looked at the family bunch of bananas dangling from a hanger underneath the cabinets in a whole new way. So of course I made a photo – it isn’t very good, but it’s the memory that matters to me. Also it’s a peculiar color because I “scanned” it with the Polaroid app on my phone.

Fast forward to this morning, and me checking in with the poetry group I just joined online. A thread in the group to share a poem, and me thinking well heck I’ll sit and write a new one and share that. . . . . what to write about. . . . wandered into the kitchen for a snack and inspiration smacked me in the face. I stood there and wrote a poem about (almost) every food item on the counter in front of me, then rushed for an old tablecloth to use as a backdrop and a camera to make still life photographs of each subject. I used a 35mm Canon to make black and whites, but mostly I wanted color, and I wanted it quickly, so I decided to use my iPhone and print them out on my Polaroid Lab (which I don’t consider cheating because it’s a royal pain trying to make a well balanced color instant film photograph indoors in low light that I don’t hate).

Here’s the first photograph, a little teaser.

You can read the poem here.

Comments welcome!