WEEK 26 IN PHOTOS

06/29/18 — Heydon Hatcher

Sun hemp. Photo by Megan Winfrey.

This past week, while our staff photographer was out of town, we had guest photographer, Megan Winfrey, take a stab at capturing the farm. This name might ring a bell as she is also one of our recipe bloggers (do yourself a favor and check out her most recent recipe for a bangin' Tomato Martini!). When she's not working full-time, momming it up, snapping beautiful images of loved ones, or knee deep in veggies, she gets her zen by slinging vintage at her online shop, Loyal Vintage. Talk about a Renaissance lady. In this collection of images, she gives us a fresh perspective of JBG with film photos from her Zenza Bronica medium format camera. She talks a little about how she initially became interested in photography, and what shooting at the farm was like this past week. Check it out below.

I got into photography in high school. My school offered beginner and advanced darkroom photography classes, and I took both. In the advanced class, you got to go off campus to shoot - which was a huge selling point for me. (what high school student doesn't want to leave during the day!?) But, it became so much more than a free hall pass. I became completely obsessed and spent all of my free time in the darkroom developing negatives and printing images. I purchased my first camera, a Minolta SRT 101 off eBay, found lenses and flashes at a garage sale, and set out to shoot anything and everything. Everything I saw became a photograph. I had countless photo shoots with friends in graveyards, backyards, abandoned houses, and open fields. My (now) husband and I fell head over heels during this sweet time, constantly photographing one another, hoping to be the next Patti Smith and Robert Mapplethorpe (roles reversed).

By the time I went off to college at St. Edward's, I had myself a pretty provocative portfolio. I decided to minor in Photo Communications, so I "wouldn't be stuck photographing weddings for a living" - this was 2007, before wedding photography morphed into the stunning art form it is today, and I might possibly regret that little quote - but basically I didn't want anyone telling me what, when, who or how to take pictures or to have my livelihood dependent on it.

Tower of tomatoes. Photo by Megan Winfrey.

So, I took all of the classes I could during those 4 years and learned everything from digital photography (hate) to large format film photography (LOVE). I shot, and still do, mostly for the love of it. The photos I take are for me, family, and friends to look back on, enjoy, and remember. The occasions where I get to shoot for someone else are a real treat. It brings me back to being a student, just me and my camera, looking for the perfect shot.

The day I shot these images for JBG, it had been raining and terribly humid all day. I drove out to the farm in the early evening, parka on, cameras loaded, nervous about the rain and mud and the pressure to get good images. I was listening to NPR, as always, and they repeatedly played clips from the audio tape of children and parents being separated at the border, with no disclosure warning. Each time those baby's voices rang out, my body reacted with heaving sobs, uncontrollable. I hadn't heard the tapes yet. By the time I got to the farm, I had to sit there in my car for a few minutes, wipe tears away, and regain myself. The rain had stopped but dark clouds loomed, mimicking my mood. I started walking the farm in search of images worth capturing, focusing on keeping my footing in the thick, slippery mud. Image after image, my fingers became less shaky, my feet more certain, and my mind more at ease. The daily pressures of adulthood, parenthood, and politics slowly melted away with each shutter snap and there, covered in sweat and dirt with nothing around me but nature, the hard work of others, and a will to capture it, I felt a sense of peace that has eluded me for what feels like forever.

--Megan Winfrey