This Was 2014

Stop me if I have said this before, but I really find the many end-of-the-year lists very tiresome. So naturally, I thought it would be a swell idea to do one myself and to review my year for you. Mine will be exciting though. Really! There will be lots of local interest, beautiful people, amazing food... Ok, so you're bored already... I will get right to it. Enjoy!

Oh, and Happy New Year!

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The day in January of 2014 when the Lydia and Francey, the entrepreneurs from Mill City Grows came to my studio.

Sopheak Sam at Harvard Business School for a Boston Global photo shoot. It was COLD that day!

Stephanie graciously agreed to do some available light testing too.

Before the weather became arctic, I worked with a local band called Trusting Fate - at a farm!

The stunning Caitie tested for some available light portraits.

Photographing food is always a joy with a food stylist like Carolyn Grieco. Thank you for the cover Merrimack Valley Magazine!

Neal, from Concept in Dracut was my cover shot for CEPro in April 2014.

The cover of the May/June issue of Merrimack Valley Magazine was all about author Andre Dubus III; a very nice guy!

You can't see him, but Steve, the Merrimack Valley Magazine's creative directory is hanging on to a softbox on a stand, hoping he won't become airborne out at this dirt road location shoot.

I enjoyed photographing and profiling several other authors, artists and artisans this year for the Merrimack Valley Magazine too. Clockwise, from the top left in this group, is one about author Holly Robinson, shot at Plumb Island. Next is ceramic artist Yary Livan, shot at his studio at Western Avenue Studios, in Lowell, MA. And last, I spent a morning learning about the coffee roasting that Rosie's Cafe does, also in Lowell.

Then there was the vacation! We spend almost a week in Santa Fe, which was the first time for Amy and me in the South West. 

The fantastic wedding and portrait photographer, Melissa Desjardins, who used to assist for me and now lives near Richmond, VA. She loves to be photographed!

Very happy to be asked to be the first photographer from Lowell, MA to be featured on the home page slide show of lowell.org!

Liz Cardoso, my assistant for the day and an emerging photographer as well, accompanied me to Portland, ME for this cover story about Rob Simopoulos, of Advance Technology.

What can I say about Thaddeus Miles? Director of Public Safety for MassHousing, photographer, public speaker, proud father, founder of several initiatives, the most recent being Hood Fit, which is "an effort to feature the most positive attributes of community building through a focus on health/wellness of the mind, body and soul." Thank you for asking me to photograph you!

Yum! Angelina's in Tewsbury, MA.

Part of my photoshoot for Jeanne D'Arc Credit Union's new ad campaign. This one of Mark S. Cochran, President & CEO at the Owl Diner, is one for the wall! (see insert - billboard seen on the VFW Highway, in Lowell)

And just a little over a week ago, I had fun working with my stylist Grace Moschetto of Grace Professional Cosmetics, models Christa and Monika, and Ani for some fashion work to market her store, Humanity Lowell.

Amazing Food - Direct from Haverhill

Back in February of this year, Carolyn, of Carolyn’s Farm Kitchen and I had fun cooking and shooting several dishes for the current issue of Merrimack Valley Magazine (March/April 2014). Actually, Carolyn does the cooking and food styling, and I do the shooting and eating. You will have to go out and get a copy to see the recipes and read the article, although there is one on-line at the MVM website here!

You also might want give us both a “Like” Facebook…

https://www.facebook.com/AdrienBissonPhotography
https://www.facebook.com/MerrimackValleyMagazine

The Latest from the Valley

The January/February 2014 issue of the Merrimack Valley Magazine is on the news stands. We had fun shooting the cover and some of the accompanying article at my studio at Western Avenue Studios. I also had the opportunity to meet two small business owners in Andover and North Andover. I can only give you a teaser here, so go out and get the magazine... Yes, now. Go ahead!

From Farmer's Market to Table

It must be two years ago now, but my wife Amy and I did a blog for quite a while about food. Amy did all of the writing, and the food prep, and I did all of the photography and most of the eating. Her blog is still out there (in every sense of the word), and is called fournightsaweek. Don’t confuse that with her very serious and important education blog, amybisson.com.

Inspired by the free magazine that is handed out by restaurants around Boston, we have decided to restart the blog, this time with a “buy local” focus and with a farm-stand to table theme. Being the dead of winter here (not kidding!), farmer’s markets are, for the most part, dormant. However, there are a few, so yesterday we decided to visit the winter one in Chelmsford, MA. Amy’s intent was to just show up and see what looked good, and build dinner around that. Here are some of the shots. Visit her blog at fournightsaweek.wordpress.com to read more about it!

Happy 2014!

Every year at this time I whine about how tiresome all of the end-of-year lists and retrospectives are, so it seems only natural that I do one myself. 2013 has been a very good year for me. I have had a number of rewarding commercial photography successes, as well as some really interesting editorial ones. As important for my sanity though have been my self-assigned portrait projects that have allowed me to get to know many interesting people who I wouldn’t necessarily have had the opportunity to spend time with. Thank you to everyone who has helped too: my wife Amy (and reluctant keeper of the books), my son and new daughter-in-law, my assistants Melissa and Liz, my stylist Grace, Western Avenue Studios, and my loyal and supportive clients and fans. I know I am forgetting someone, so please accept my apology in advance! Thank you again and have a very Happy New Year!

Adrien

2013 in Pictures

Local Farming Lives

I really want you to go out and get this month's Merrimack Valley Magazine! It should arrive on news stands around September 16th. I do have the fall fashion cover story, but I will talk about that in another blog. I want to talk about my local farming photo essay today though. I am really happy that I was able to pull this long-term story-in-pictures off! Working on it most of the Spring and early Summer, I got to visit a number of agricultural enterprises around the valley and meet with some really dedicated people, each of whom was more than happy to spend time giving me guided tours of their operations. I really do get to see aspects of some things that most people don't get to see or sometimes, even know about. Hopefully, this article will give you a taste for what is growing all around us. And speaking of taste, there is an accompanying article in which Carolyn Grieco, of Carolyn's Farm Kitchen, cooks up some of the dishes recommended by the farmers, just to be captured in my photos.

So please check out the magazine for the rest of the photos, the extended captions by Emilie-Noelle Provost, as well as the accompanying article with lots of recipes and food shots.

Farmer Dave checks the progress of his crop

Farmer Dave's blueberry crop

Mann Orchard crates await the harvest

Lydia and Francey, of Mill City Grows, discuss their city community garden in Lowell

Jeanmerli of Groundwork Lawrence taking care of the weeds

Groundwork Lawrence... I love these!

The beautiful landscape of the Cider Hill Farm

Karen of Cider Hill Farm shows me what's growing

I first met Karen and Glenn in the spring, shooting another assignment. Like all of the others that I visited, they were more than generous with their time and enthusiasm.

Busy as...

Merrimack Valley Apiaries

And let's not forget the final product! 

Food Truck Revolution

Many summers ago, when I worked in an office in Kendall Square in Cambridge, one of the better lunch options was always the Falafel trucks that parked around MIT. It seems that now, food trucks are ubiquitous, and great.  Photographer Kevin Harkins and I recently were assigned to photograph several of these moveable feasts for the Merrimack Valley Magazine. The truck that I was able to see and step into, Chicken on the Road, originates from Billerica, MA, and is all about chicken. Big, bright and clean, check out their FB page and track them down and catch lunch!

Things that I Like

My thing is People Photography. I think I give that impression anyway. I'm not a marketing professional, but I read and can follow directions. So, since I love to photograph people, that's what I emphasize. Any good photographer though, can do many things. Not necessarily all things. I don't do weddings, sports, I really dislike grip-and-grin shoots... I could go on. I do enjoy making photographs that please me though. I have found that those are most often subjects that I am attracted to in the first place. Here are some. (Make sure you click on some of the captions. They have links)

I like to eat. Slowly. Small portions that taste. Heaping piles of stuff annoy me.

Here are some dishes that are decidedly not in that category.

This, and the previous shot are of some dishes by Chef Carolyn Grieco, of Haverhill, MA

Rainy days make great shots in the summer. So green. This organization and the fields owner deserve a lot of credit!

There's a rumor that I had some work published in a special Home edition of a local magazine...

The beautiful new interior of Lowell's Merrimack Rep (MRT)

Speaking of Lowell, Massachusetts...

Vendor preparing for Lowell's City of Lights parade

Locally Grown - One More Time

Just as I have done the past two years, I spent some time this summer visiting small local farms and farm-related training events, mostly for the New Entry Sustainable Farming Project. This year I got to revisit a few of the farmers that I had met in previous years, this time at their new, larger farms. You may recognize a few people from both my portfolio and some of my previous blogs. One couple that I met in Dracut, Massachusetts, last year now has a farm in Groton, as well as a new addition to their family! Congratulations!

By way of showing how the food progresses from the farm to the table, I also visited the new packing station for the Lowell CSA, or Community Supported Agriculture project. Clearly a growing and well-run organization.

For more information visit these sites:

http://www.nesfp.org/
http://nesfp.nutrition.tufts.edu/worldpeas/csa.html

A Family Business

I worked on a story last month for the Merrimack Valley Magazine, written by Kathleen Pierce, about culinary "hidden haunts" in the valley. One of the places that I really enjoyed was Coté's Market, on Salem Street in Lowell. The small, family owned and operated market is a lot like the little stores that my father used to frequent when I was growing up. My father was always on a first-name basis with the owner and they would typically converse in French while I stood in my Anglophone daze. Many of us are a couple of generations away from our Québec roots here in Massachusetts, so English it is, but I experienced the same something in my interactions with the father and son team of Roger and Kurt Levasseur and the rest of their team. They seem to know their customers by name and they went out of their way to make me feel comfortable.

Then there is the food.

                                                                      In her article, Kathleen appropriately praises the killer baked beans that the Levasseurs make, which are quite different from those that were once called "Boston Baked". They are decidedly Québécoises. The beans are great, but really, it's about the pie; the pork pie, or la tourtière, which Coté's makes in abundance. Kurt told me that at Christmas they sell about 500 pork pies! Pork pies are something that everyone who had a Mémère knows about, but that no one else has heard of or believes you when you tell them about it. Every family makes it differently. Coté's make it their way, and it is the real thing!

Here are more shots of the market taken as Kurt showed off this place, of which he is so proud. Coté's is located at 175 Salem Street, in Lowell, Massachusetts.