A Growing Business

Two of the nicest people you could ever meet also happen to be two of the smartest and innovative entrepreneurs in the area. Lydia and Francey are the force behind Mill City Grows, the Lowell, Massachusetts-based enterprise that is bringing community gardening and urban food production to the city and surrounding area. Their mission: “Mill City Grows fosters food justice by improving physical health, economic independence and environmental sustainability in Lowell through increased access to land, locally-grown food and education.” Please visit their web site: http://www.millcitygrows.org

Back to Francey and Lydia though, both of whom, along with their husbands, are thoroughly invested in the community and its success. I have had the opportunity to follow them around to a few of their projects for the Merrimack Valley Magazine and the Local Farming photo essay that I did last year. Yesterday afternoon they dropped by my studio to pose for some shots at The Big Doors. Please do visit their web site to see what’s growing!

Francey Slater and Lydia Sisson of Mill City Grows

Sheila Harrity on the Cover of Principal Leadership Magazine

Principal Leadership Magazine asked me to go to Worcester Technical High School, in Worcester, Massachusetts, to photograph Principal Sheila Harrity, the 2014 MetLife/NASSP National High Principal of the Year for their cover story. Such an amazing place and such an amazingly charismatic and engaging person. Walking through the halls as she guided our tour of the impressive facility, Sheila engages with every student that she can in these brief encounters. They seem to really respect and appreciate her dedication as well as the resources that are made available to them in such an impressive school. Some of the story is on-line here.

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!

Joe Hungler Meets the Big Doors

Joe Hungler and I recently discovered that we have a connection that neither of us were aware of. Joe grew up in Manchester, NH, and was a close friend of my nephew when they were both in grammar school. It’s the kind of thing that we seem to only discover from social media when there are friends or followers in common.

Joe is one of the many Lowellians who is committed to making life better for those with less. He is currently the Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell and on the board of directors of the Cultural Organization of Lowell. Originally from Manchester, having grown up in the Boys & Girls club there, where he worked for 10 years on the Program staff, Joe came to Lowell by way of clubs in Nashua, Waltham and Worcester. Get him started on talking about his work and you will soon see why his enthusiasm leads to his success. 

Please visit their web site. What they offer kids and the cost will probably surprise you! From their web site: “The membership fee for the school year is $26. No child is turned away due to inability to pay – scholarships are offered to children who could not otherwise afford membership.“

Joe Hungler - Executive Director at Boys & Girls Club of Greater Lowell

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

Full Circle

Yovani and I were following each other on Twitter before we had actually met. I remember meeting her at the first Tweetup that I attended and was a little shocked that she and a couple of other people came up to introduce themselves as followers. The power of social media sort of hit me at that moment, but that’s another story. 

Yovani is a native Lowellian. She told me that she went to college in Maine, so I had to Google Farmington, Maine. It’s up there. Zipping around with StreetView, it looks where I grew up, but more so. Yovani came back to the Valley though, getting her masters at UMass Lowell, working for a state senator and then for several years in Lawrence, at Lawrence Community Works, managing rehab and other construction projects. She now works for the City of Lowell, which she really enjoys.

The Big Doors were calling though. Yovani seemed psyched to be photographed in front of the famous landmark. I think it worked.

Look Around and See the Good

I met Geoff Foster at Lowell’s United Teen Equity Center (UTEC) in 2012 while documenting the important work that the dedicated personal at UTEC does. Geoff, a youth organizer, is UTEC’s Associate Director of Political Action and is well known in the community for championing the Vote 17 initiative, and state-wide for overseeing the Teens Leading the Way coalition, among other things.

What is striking about Geoff is his unrestrained enthusiasm for what he does. To see him in action with a group of young people is truly inspiring. So as I have invited different personalities for the area to allow me photograph them, several of them insisted that I should extend the invitation to Geoff as well. He was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule yesterday afternoon to come by. It was incredibly interesting and uplifting to talk with him and experience his contagious enthusiasm, but I got to photograph him too!

Geoff Foster

Geoff Foster, United Teen Equality Center, Lowell, Massachusetts

Loving Both Sides of the Camera

More often than not, I am at a loss for something to write about in this space. There are some times though that I simply have work to show. Work to show off and to share, that I hope people will find compelling. I am constantly striving to do more significant work because I usually feel that it is competent but not that important. In any event, I do sometimes feel that it is good enough. Digressing... The week before last a colleague of mine, who has moved to Richmond, VA, came back to the Boston area to shoot a couple of weddings and we both wanted to reconnect and, I was hoping, get in a photo shoot. While she is a very talented and up-and-coming wedding and portrait photographer, she also loves to be in front of the camera. That quality in people usually comes through.

This then, is one of those times in which I simply want to share some work with you. Nothing earth-shattering or terribly important from a photographic or story-telling sense, but just some fun photos of a friend on an enjoyable afternoon in the studio. I hope you agree!

The excellent work of Melissa Desjardins, of Desjar Photography, can be found here: http://desjarphoto.com

Style... On the Cover

For this month's Merrimack Valley Magazine, I was part of a small army of creatives that were assigned to produce the magazine's fall fashion cover and cover stories. It was a fun day, with stylists, hair and makeup artists, creatives from the magazine, as well as photographer Meghan Moore and myself all working together with our two models to create something beautiful, interesting and hopefully informative. I'll show my cover shot here, but to see the rest of the spread, you will have to check out the magazine. Here though, are some of my favorites, both posed and unposed from that day at historic Coburn Hall, at the UMass Lowell campus in Lowell, Massachusetts.

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!