Sandi Haber Fifield

I had the great pleasure of meeting Sandi Haber Fifield when she was visiting Los Angeles a few months ago. She shared with me her new book, Between Planting and Picking, published by Charta this year, and another lovely monograph, Walking through the World, also published by Charta in 2009. Sandi looks at the world in an organic and gestural way. Her new series, Between Planting and Picking, reveals the essence of farm life that is contemporary, yet timeless. Through her images of various farms, we can hear the whine of summer insects, smell the grasses and the harvest, hear the snap of the clothes left to dry on the line, and witness the details of a life grounded in the earth.

Planting trays and vines, 2009

Sandi lives in New York and has been making photographs since she received her MFA from Rochester Institute of Technology. Her photographs have been widely exhibited and included in exhibitions at The Art Institute of Chicago, The DeCordova Museum, The Museum of American Art, Museum of Contemporary Photography, The Museum of Modern Art, The Oakland Museum, The Southeast Museum of Photography, and The St. Louis Art Museum.

Sandi also recently opened an exhibition at KMR Arts in Washington, CT, titled Earth /Clay, with photographs from Between Planting and Picking coupled with terra cotta sculpture by Frances Palmer. Rick Wester Fine Art in NYC will be taking her work to Pulse LA (September 30-October 3rd) and Pulse Miami, (December 1-4th).

Blue Sky and Jackets will be shown at the Rick Wester Fine Art booth at Pulse LA


Between Planting and Picking explores the quiet moments and unexpected beauty that reveal the simple life of a small farm. Inspired by the rapid ascendency of the local food movement and the knowledge that the industrial food pipeline is not necessarily the best way to feed ourselves, I spent two seasons photographing small farms, many of which have been owned and cared for by families, some for generations. Although I was not on a search to document farming per se, the farms allowed me to balance the geographic with the geometric and they gave me a place for exploration within the unending cycle of growth and harvest.

All images courtesy Rick Wester Fine Art



Beginning in Northern California at Green Gulch Farm and Zen Center, where farming is part of the Zen practice, to Beetlebung Farm in Chilmark, MA; from the orchards along the Mississippi River in Brussels, IL, to the grapes grown on Guy Beardsley's eco-garden in Shelton, CT, I chronicled many places that, although far-flung, share a tangible spirit that is communicated in the most ordinary of details. There is a lot of sublime "waiting" in this project. I’ve purposefully looked at the seemingly mundane things we take for granted—all the better to convey the hard work that goes into nature's bounty. I’m drawn to the authenticity of small farm life that congregates along the margins in myriad cast-off moments: sunlight on muslin seed bags, wooden crates, plastic mesh, buckets, pots, hoses, a lunar planting calendar, quirky signage. As I made more and more pictures, the candid beauty and improvised quality I discovered in the unkempt edges of these small farm environments became a focus. I hope it is within the banal details, unsuspecting and unnoticed, that a narrative unfolds, showing the beauty in the randomness and the re-purposing. To me, there is a metaphor in the unending cycle of growth and harvest for my own image making.





These photographs also began a visual retreat from my previous (and ongoing) bodies of work which explore relationships between multiple image configurations. Compressing images into one frame at a time was a departure.

The Life of Riley

With great sadness, we said goodbye Tuesday evening to my constant companion of a dozen plus years. Riley had major surgery two months ago after which she was diagnosed with cancer. Recently, it had spread to her brain and we knew it was time. A vet came to our house to help her go and we had the great privilege of being with Riley at the end of her life. She left in a way that was profound and peaceful.





In the way that the karmic world works, I received an e-mail yesterday from Laura Brunow Minor letting me know that a photo essay that I had submitted several months ago on the subject of "what I have learned from my pet" would run in the new Pictory Magazine and it would be launched today--remarkable timing that felt like yet another quiet gift from Riley's remarkable soul. Here is my essay from Love Without Language--be sure to read all the photos stories as they are wonderful.





Riley was a big part of my photo life. From an early age, she discovered the camera. Whenever I set up my black velvet backdrop, she would simply plop herself in the middle of the fabric, ready to work. I often had to get her out of the frame as she wanted to be part of whatever I was doing. She had the patience of a saint, allowing me to cover her face in masks, wear wigs, be humiliated, and wait quietly for her reward.


























Arrangement in Green and Black #20, Portrait of the Photographer's Mother



Arrangement in Green and Black #11, Portrait of the Photographer's Mother



Converse, from Self Portraits



The Star, from Hollywood at Home

Most importantly, Riley brought so much joy to our family. She loved my children, always happy to have them return home from school so she could participate in their activities--she attended basketball games, dressed up at Halloween, and joined in on the slumber parties . She also loved anything to do with water--swimming in friend's pools, running through every sprinkler in the neighborhood, loving our trips to the beach or lake where she could be free to swim and explore. The highlight of one summer at the lake was when Riley emerged from the water with a huge eel and was greeted with screams and fascination.

I can still hear the tinkle of her collar, feel her presence in my house, hear her sigh. I know I am not alone in understanding that our pets are gifts and wonderful teachers, making us better by teaching us how to love, how to be loyal, how to live each day smelling the good smells, being happy to see friends and family, and savoring every last morsel of life. Thank you, Riley, for loving me so completely. I will miss you until the day we meet again.

ReRuns: Kendall Messick's The Projectionist

I am re-running last year's post on Kendall Messick as The Projectionist still remains one of my favorite projects and books of the past couple of years ....

After I returned home from my travels this summer, the pile of mail held a box I wasn't expecting. I didn't know who it was from and hadn't ordered anything, but quickly discovered it had been sent by the Princeton Architectural Press . It contained, hands down, the most wonderful book, story, and photographs that I have seen in a long time. I was stunned, excited, and couldn't wait to learn/see more.



I have always been drawn to the quirky side of life, to people that stand outside the norm, and to stories that are magical and marvelous, and The Projectionist provides all of that.

But let me start at the beginning.

Kendall Messick is a well regarded photographer, having studied at the International Center of Photography and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Kendall is a natural storyteller, and has produced a number of significant projects, several culminating into feature length documentaries, including The Projectionist. But let's go back a little farther in his personal history to about age 6, when he lived across the street from the town's movie theater projectionist, Gordon Brinckle, in Middletown, Delaware.

Mr. Brinckle had a like-long dream of owning and operating a movie palace. He was a bit of a loner, so decided to fulfill his dream, downstairs, in his own basement. He created a fully operational theater, The Shalimar, complete with theater chairs, drapes, paintings, marquee, and a red carpet. It became a passion and an obsession. Kendall had the opportunity to see the theater only once as a child, but many years later he returned home on a visit and asked Mr. Brinckle to show it to him again. Marveling at this amazing creation, Kendall knew that he had to photograph not only the theater, but the theater's owner and creator. And fortunately, the timing was perfect. Mr. Brinckle, a very elderly man, was extremely concerned about what would happen to his masterpiece after his passing. Their collaboration has resulted into something quite remarkable.

Gordon Brinckle as the town projectionist


Kendall creates a wonderful juxtaposition of the upstairs images captured in black and white, while the downstairs images are in saturated technicolor.

The Brinckle home


Gordon Brinckle in his 90's


Mr. Brinckle's hand a top some of his drawings for the theater


And now, will you take your seats please....and turn off your cell phones.















In 2007, Gordon Brinckle passed away, but fortunately Kendall was able to reconstruct the theater for exhibition, and Gordon was finally able to share his creation with the sunlight.

This is not only a wonderful book, complete with photographs of his drawings and papers, but soon there will be a traveling exhibition and a film to celebrate "The Shalimar". What a wonderful story about making dreams into a reality.

The theater for exhibition


Gordon and Kendall

Eliot Dudik

When Eliot Dudik talks about acknowledging the "modest souls of the low country in South Carolina", he does it with a large format camera and a dose of grace and humility in his series, Road Ends in Water. These rich images speak to a lifestyle of Southern culture that reflect the hum of insects, the slowed down pace of an unremarkable day, and the waterways that mark the landscape and draw it's population to it's banks. Eliot has a monograph of this work that is available for purchase on his site and through photo-eye books.

Eliot graduated from the College of Charleston with a Bachelors of Science in Anthropology and a Bachelors of Art in Art History and he received his MFA in photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2010. Eliot joined the University of South Carolina faculty in the fall of 2011 as an adjunct professor of photography.His work has been featured in publications such as Fraction Magazine, Magenta Magazine, and One, One Thousand: A Publication of Southern Photography. He was recently interviewed on the London photo blog, The Great Leap Sideways. In addition to a current solo show at the Art+Cayce gallery in Columbia, SC, he will be exhibiting at the Click646 Photography Conference in Greenwood, SC at the end of this month.


Road Ends in Water: Change is descending upon an otherwise quiet, unhurried, unobtrusive, place. The main highway, U.S Route 17, that bisects South Carolina’s “lowcountry,” north to south, is being widened to accommodate commerce, tourists, and urban refugees. Not only are many homes, some historic, disappearing before the tracked blades of expansion, but also the new, faster thoroughfare encourages greater disregard and obliviousness to the charm and culture the basin harbors.

This collection of images and thoughts is a tribute to, and an acknowledgment of, the respect the modest souls of this region, obscure from the mainstream, deserve for their tenacity, good humor, social commitment, and acceptance of the ebb and flow of the often incomprehensible vagaries of existence.

A photographic adventure became an artistic journey and culminated in a unique awakening to an otherwise overlooked cultural phenomenon. While the road ends in water, it began there as well.