Paige Green is a documentary and portrait photographer, whose storytelling approach to photography frequently addresses issues involving agriculture, land use, and food. Her work is featured in nine books and has been published in Glamour, National Geographic Traveler, New York Times Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, GQ, Country Living, House Beautiful, and Culture. Paige lives in Petaluma, CA with a house full of boys.
It is an exciting time for the Wan-Rees family and for The Big Flip! On May 22nd, 2013, sweet Mabel Mai was born and we were lucky to have the opportunity to document what day 5 looked like for this family of 6…
And now for the Katie Couric part…. on Tuesday, June 11th, Mabel Mai is going to New York, with her parents and The Big Flip, to tell Katie Couric what it is like to be in a modern family with a breadwinning mom and a stay-at-home dad. We are crazy excited for this amazing family and for the opportunity to share our documentary project with the Nation.
To find out how you can watch the Wan-Rees family on national television and to learn more about the The Big Flip click here: http://bigflipdocumentary.com/action
I was eight months pregnant with my son when Izzy Chan asked me if I would help her document the increasing trend of women becoming the primary breadwinners of their families.
She had statistics and facts for this new role reversal that painted a pretty dismal outlook.
As the primary breadwinners of our own households, we were not satisfied by the statistics so we wanted to learn more.
We wanted to hear from real families…
From both sides of the story…
From real dads, husbands, men…
And from real moms, wives, women…
Who have very real needs, dreams, responsibilities…
And that lead us to Bonnie and Chip and their family of five, soon to be six…
We spent a Sunday…
And a Monday morning…
…following these two around, asking questions, listening and watching.
We have just gotten started and already we have learned a lot from the Wan-Rees family, and from the other five families we have followed.
Our goal is to share how real families are making it work in the Modern Home Front, so we can all learn how to move through these new gender, family, cultural changes as successfully as possible.
So we are currently in the middle of editing a sneak peek of their story, to help us raise money so we can go back…
I have thinking about it for years… and this year I am finally making it happen, with a little help from my friends, Jude and Morgan. There are a few spaces left so please spread the word…
If you, or someone you know, is a photographer who would enjoy spending a weekend on an amazing farm playing with cameras, lenses, reflectors, models, food photography, barns, bouncing lambs, chicken coops, oak trees, grassy fields, wood-fired pizza, and campfires then please click the link to learn more: http://farmphotoworkshop.com/
If you asked me how my home birth was, you would not hear me say, “My home birth was beautiful.”
Instead I very honestly would tell you, “It was extremely long, incredibly painful and very, very messy. I can understand why drugs were invented and why people take them.”
Between endless hours of back-breaking contractions, I kept repeating, “This is ridiculous. How can there be 7 billion people on the planet.”
I couldn’t see why anyone would voluntarily choose to do this more than once in their lifetime, let alone 7 billion times.
People told me eventually I would forget and the hormones would win again, but I refused to believe that I could ever forget what that day felt like. And I announced that I was quite happy with one.
Yet here I am, one year and 5 months later, just like everyone said, wondering… if, maybe, should we?
So I was excited when Rose sent me an email asking if I would photograph the birth of their second baby girl, who would be born at home some time in March. It would be a good test. How would it feel to see someone else go through labor? And what was a home birth like the second time around?
I was also excited because I have never seen a human being born. I have seen cows, sheep, and dogs… but not a human (I had my eyes closed the whole time during HAH’s birth.)
And I got a small taste of what it must feel like for doctors and midwives. For once in my life, I had my cell phone almost always charged and I almost always knew where it was. And at gatherings with friends, I would announce, “I can’t drink tonight, I’m on call.”
But then it didn’t happen. The due date came and went. I started filling up my calendar. I had photo shoots scheduled every day. Arann got sick, so I was working all day and on solo parenting duty at night. Until finally at the end of day two of photographing flowers in SF, I got the texts:
4:12pm “I think we are in early labor, midwife is coming over. Will text again.”
4:57 “Come now!!”
I was in San Francisco.
The family was in Oakland.
For those of you not from the Bay Area, 5pm on a Thursday means… Fat chance.
I only had to drive 10.5 miles.
It took me one hour.
When I finally arrived at the house, Rose’s mother let me in and said, “The baby was just born, come on in.”
And this is what I saw…
While I was disappointed to have missed the birth, it was probably for the best because I got to experience all of the joy and none of the work. Which means I can confidently say that it was the most beautiful home birth, I almost saw.
Thank you, Rose and Jonathan, for inviting me to be a part of this amazing moment in your lives. It was such an incredible honor and I am so excited for your family. And, as Rose said to me after the birth of HAH, “Have fun falling in love.”
When I was working on photo shoot yesterday, for an exciting new book with Lila B, I met another photographer who asked me what I photograph.
My quick reply, as I was standing behind my tripod with my camera pointing at an arrangement of flowers,”I photograph people.”
Photographer man: look of awkward confusion.
My addendum, “And lately, flowers.”
While I do love, and probably prefer photographing people, I am willing to photograph almost anything if the people I get to work with are amazing.
And as I start work on my second flower/plant arranging book, I can confidently say I have nothing but love for flower people and I will happily work with them any time.
Here are behind the scenes look from my first flower book, with the incredible Studio Choo, that will be on the bookshelves, in a book store near you, this spring.
Huge thanks to Morgan Bellinger for being an incredible assistant and shanty town builder.
Seana first contacted me on November 10th about family photos. We had three or four scheduled dates to meet but each time it just didn’t work out… thanks to conflicting holiday schedules, bad weather, the flu, and even an epic battle with poison oak. But we didn’t give up. We waited until schedules calmed down, the weather was just right, the poison oak went away and everyone one was feeling healthy, relaxed and ready to play…
Lou is HOME and purring on my lap right now! Yesterday we walked by our old house, one last time, and there he was meowing in his tree… so, so hungry. Luckily I happened to have some ham in my pocket.
Thank you so much for the support. We will keep him indoors now, so hopefully we will not be doing this hunt again.
I lost my first tooth before the tooth fairy could take it. Well technically I didn’t lose it, the maid at the hotel threw it away.
I lost my first camera on the steps of the Smithsonian Museum on our 6th grade trip to Washington DC.
I lost a jade stone from my mother’s Claddagh ring, that I didn’t have permission to wear, while walking home from school.
I lost my first (and last) pair of expensive sunglasses, just weeks after I purchased them, at the bottom of Kentucky Lake after diving right in with them still on my face.
I lost my favorite black dress that I wore to my best friend’s wedding.
I lost my only set of car keys in the sand on the beach of Carmel and had to have AAA come make a new set on site.
I lost the wedding ring my husband made me with his own two hands.
I have lost one of every pair of earrings I have ever owned, and the same goes for socks.
How do I handle being a loser… I try really hard not to get attached. Material things are just passing through. I love them as much as I can until they inevitably leave my possession and then I let them go… you know the saying.
But as of Friday January 11th, 2013, I have to add Lou, my cat (aka: The Loser) to my lost list…
However, not surprisingly, I am having a really hard time applying my “let it go” philosophy to a member of my family…
Even though he was kind of like a drunk uncle who went on all night benders and came back in the morning stinky and surly…
…and then spent the whole day sleeping on the couch.
We have been through a lot together…
Since his disappearance, I lie awake at night thinking about possible scenarios of what might have happened to him.
I wake in the morning from dreams of finding him.
We return to our old house and shake food at least two times a day.
I tell everyone I meet that I am looking for my cat… My fat, stinky, grumpy, “watch out he bites,” cat.
To add to the hollow heartache, and the sense of failure as a pet owner, our 15 month-old son walks around the house meowing, in the exact pitch that Lou would meow, as he looks for his cat too.
I try to tell myself that Lou is fine. He has been known to hang out with foxes. And he is a fighter…
But it has been really cold this past week, and even though he is a survivor, he does like his modern day comforts.
And he is not one to skip a meal.
So I am hoping he has turned on the charm and sweet talked his way in to someone’s home.
People say cats come back.
But I am not sure which is harder… thinking he may come back or trying to let him go.
And to be fair to myself… I did not lose The Loser.
He lost us…
So all I can do now is hope that he will find us again soon.
If you live near Western Avenue in Petaluma and you see a giant orange cat who looks lost please let me know. Thank you!
somewhere between a handshake and two kisses 