Outside the Food Studio: Photographer Justin B. Paris

After a recent shoot, a group of us met for a light dinner and cocktails. It's always great to socialize outside the studio, the work day can be intense with little time to catch up. The funny thing is, undoubtedly the conversation turns back to some aspect of food. We are like the parents enjoying a night away from the kids, who can't seem to stop talking about the kids.

For many of my colleagues, food has a strong presence in their personal time as well. Just as I enjoy the relentless search for new prop inspirations, many people that I work with have passions related to their role in food photography.



Photographer Justin Paris is a perfect example. An incredibly talented food and still life shooter, (earlier this year I showed you some of the images we shot together in this post), Justin and his wife Andrea have a deep commitment to the farm to table movement. His blog, alimental prologue, is an intimate look at the farms just beyond this sprawling city. As so many of you are also of like mind about the food you consume, I asked Justin about their dedication to this way of eating, and the path it has led him down.




SLS: Justin, when did you first become involved with local food?

A decade ago my wife and I spent a few years living in northern California. Our entire food world changed there. We had access to foods that were previously unknown to us. We had fruit trees in our backyard, we planted a garden, I was vegetarian for a period of time. Our food philosophy has grown and evolved since then but that’s really when it began for us.






SLS: How challenging has it been to stay on track with the decision to eat local?

That depends on how you emphasize it. I think that it is important for us all to make changes in our lives that will not only better our own quality of life, but also those around us, especially our children. However, in making changes I have always believed that it’s a gradual process that takes many steps. You just can’t abandon everything at once and you can’t ignore the world that we live in. You can’t just give up all fossil fuels in a day or retrofit your house tomorrow to become “greener”. It’s not an achievable goal. It’s all about minimizing and moderation. The same is true with eating local. We have always been concerned about the foods that we eat. That was a foundation laid by our parents and for them by their parents. Because of that, our cabinets and fridge have never been filled with lots of processed foods. But they were still there and some still are. We just took a look at the types of foods that we were eating, where we were sourcing them, and changed what made the most sense for us. We still buy pretzels and tortilla chips, canned beans and tomatoes, avocados and citrus, cashews and coffee, and juice boxes for our little boys. But the kitchen is mostly just filled with ingredients now. When you get to that point, it really becomes easier to source locally. It will never be as convenient as grocery store shopping but it does become easier. We just threw a party for 30 family members at our home. The menu was four homemade soups and three homemade breads. We planned seasonally and sourced as much as possible from our local farmers but the reality of the menu made it necessary to shop at a conventional grocery store as well. We could easily get the meats, butter, flour, eggs, popcorn, fruits and vegetables that we needed from the farmers market. But we needed yeast, salt, lentils, beans, and lots of broths. It’s a process. Our approach has been to do as much as we can as often as possible. And in all honesty it’s the quality of the food keeps bringing us back.






SLS: What's going into your garden next year?

I am so excited for the next growing season. This year we grew some things that we had not in the past and realized that we needed more space to grow all the things we want. I just finished adding almost 200 square feet of vegetable beds. With luck we will be planting in half of that next season and the rest by the following year. We also added a huge wildflower garden. Combined we managed to remove over 500 square feet of grass from our yard. This season I rescued and planted two blueberry bushes and next year we will transplant raspberries from my in-laws’ yard. The current plan is for chard, kale, carrots, garlic, onions, basil, thyme, oregano, cilantro, cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, jalapenos, poblanos, eggplant, broccoli, and maybe watermelon. Our oldest son loves planting, watering and harvesting and our little one will be trying some of those things for the first time. It’s almost silly how excited I am about it.





SLS: As I read alimental prologue, I sense a very deep and genuine respect for the people who work the farms and fields you visit. What insight have you gained about their way of life?

I am so glad to hear that that comes through to the viewer. I go to these farms to create images but I also want to tell a story. Over the past year I have spent a lot of time at markets and farms just talking to the producers. Every one wants to talk about what they do. They’re all proud of their processes, their successes, and even their failures. Growing food is not easy. And making a living at it is even harder. You can see that on a farmer’s face. But you can also see how much they love doing it. It’s important for them that they do. Farming is in their soul. I don’t think you see that kind of dedication just anywhere. How can you not want to support that? These are good people doing good things. And working really damn hard for not much monetary reward.





SLS: As a society we tend to disconnect with where our food comes from. Thoughts about the livestock farms?

As a species we do a lot of things that don’t make sense. It doesn’t matter what we are talking about, it’s not specific to our food system. We never fix the core problem we just come up with solutions to solve the short-term issue. It’s sad. Commercial feedlots serve our insatiable appetite for meat. They were the short-term solution. The core issue is how we view consumption and waste. But tackling that won’t make a corporation wealthier. The thing that I love about sourcing our meat locally – which we now do exclusively – is that the farmers that raise these animals really care about how it’s done. Sure, they need to make a profit, but never at the cost of compromising their philosophies on health, sustainability, and animal welfare. When the philosophy is most important, the result is a far superior product.



SLS: You always come away with such beautiful shots. What kind of reaction do you get from the farmers when they view the images?

My hope is that they value my work in the same way that I value theirs. So far the results have been positive.




SLS: What is the personal mission behind your blog?

I really wanted to make beautiful images. There never was a plan to blog. It all began as a personal assignment to build a catalogue of farm photography. But after my first trip to Hasselmann Family Farm the whole motive changed. It became about knowledge and understanding. And about sharing. It suddenly switched over to personal motivation rather than business motivation. It’s still certainly applicable to my photography business but the motivation has become much more philosophical. The whole process has made me feel more complete as a person.

SLS: Thank you, Justin, for taking time out to share your thoughts and photography. We'll be following you through the farms and fields on alimental prologue!

I'll be introducing you to more of the amazing people I am fortunate to have as co-workers and friends. They are truly a source of daily inspiration.