This past Friday I had my first real gallery opening at Maglianero in Burlington, VT! It was a fantastic night with a great crowd and in support of Food 4 Farmers.

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be showing my Food 4 Farmers photographs June 28th – July 31st at the Karma Birdhouse Gallery at Maglianero Cafe! I’ll be displaying 26 images from the series, and if you are in the Burlington, VT area, you are invited to the gallery opening from 5-7pm on Friday, July 18th.

Sara is my oldest friend, and she’s been a wonderful person to photograph over the years. We’d been talking about doing a photoshoot focusing on her tattoos for a while, and last weekend we had a perfect location. My family’s summer home sits on Lake Champlain in South Hero, Vermont and, when the water dropped for the summer, huge trees and driftwood were washed up on the rocks. The combination of drift wood, South Hero and dusk, made for a perfect scenario.

Last April I went to NYC to visit friends and go to the AIPAD photography show, and I’m pretty sure this might become a lifelong tradition. AIPAD is such a thrill – the world’s best photography galleries display their best photographs. Most people at the show attend to purchase these photographs, anything from $1,000 – $60,000, and then there all of the photography geeks who wander around drooling.

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of spending the day with The Gang of Thieves and photographing their album release show at ArtsRiot in Burlington, VT. In the past year, the band fundraised $10,000 through a Kickstarter campaign to work with a grammy award winning producer, Michael Rosen, to make an incredible album, Thunderfunk. This day was the culmination of an insane amount of work on the part of all the band members, and I felt so lucky to be included on such an important day for the gang. See the full gallery from the day here and you can buy the album here.

As I mentioned in my last post, I was very lucky this year to travel to Seattle with Food 4 Farmers to attend the SCAA to present my photographs. I selected what I consider the best 40 images from Nicaragua and printed them for a portfolio. Below is a digital copy of the portfolio for those of you who didn’t get a chance to check it out!

I see coffee as a connector. It allows resources to travel from one place to another. Through coffee “I’ve been able to get to know the people who produce coffee and learn about their farming, agriculture, activities, and what the land means to them. Often people see coffee as separate from origin, and my job is to help communicate to the industry and consumers, where people do not know the story of the coffee producer, that the two are intertwined. I work to bring the resulting financial and organizational resources to the people who grow the coffee.”

There is an unspoken rule when traveling on public transportation: keep to yourself and keep quiet. I’ve lived in smaller communities for the majority of my life (Burlington, VT and Saratoga Springs, NY) and I’ve found that people look each other in the eye more often in these small communities. Whenever I’m in a big city, I feel the lack of engagement like fresh snow, everything is covered in a thin layer of concealment, but concealment that could easily be brushed away. I decided I’d try an experiment and break the silent rule. I approached people waiting for the T or in transit and asked them if I could take their portrait.

Traveling can be helpful to think outside of the box. I often find that as I am brainstorming a location for a photoshoot, I am going off a short list, and things start to gain a similar quality. I wanted to create something with an unconventional composition and a different color scheme that I normally gravitate towards. Having access to a pool while I was in Culebra provided me with a perfect opportunity to explore a different scene.

In January I escaped from the extreme cold of Boston to go to Culebra, a small island off the coast of Puerto Rico. It was a wonderful getaway to enjoy with my family and boyfriend, Nick. When it comes to vacation, I’ve never been one to have trouble relaxing and I actually read 3 books – ah joy! I decided to leave my camera behind most days, but I (naturally) did document some of the trip. Most of these are photos of my family and Nick and various beautiful sights. Hope you enjoy!