somewhere between a handshake and two kisses

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about

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.

  • Waffle House in Lancaster

    I started my Waffle House Tour 2007 in Lancaster, PA. For those who don’t know, I believe the Waffle House is a place to find community in our chain restaurant reality. Because community is my motivating force, one of my projects I have been wanting to do for many years is to document community within the WH establishments and this summer I hope to work on that in my free time….or if other projects don’t pan out.

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    Kisha and Carlos helped served us at the WH on Dillerville Rd in Lancaster, PA. I ate grilled cheese, sweet tea and then my brother and I had to try the new chocolate chip waffles for dessert. Kisha’s favorite artist on the jukebox is Shakira and the biggest event to happen in this WH was when Cylo the mascot for the Barnstormers, Lancaster’s baseball team, came to visit the restaurant.

  • Amish Hunting

    After two weeks in Philadelphia, I was ready for some country….and not just any country, Amish country. So we researched the Amish on what else but wikipedia…..some facts we didn’t know were that the Amish are not allowed to wear buttons or receive education past the 8th grade, so they just repeat 8th grade until they are legally old enough to graduate. Most importantly the Amish are a very strong community and I would love to do a photo project on their culture, but unfortunately we only had an afternoon so it became more like Amish hunting than anything else, but it was a great adventure in Pennsylvania’s beautiful countryside and I added another community to my to-do-list.

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    Amish clothes drying….see any buttons? Besides looking for people without buttons we also looked for houses without power-lines…..

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    and horse drawn buggies were pretty good indicators but they were more challenging to photograph….

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    so I looked for easier subjects….not sure if these people were Amish and unfortunately my boyfriend is not Amish….but the lightening that illuminated the sky behind him made the experience worthwhile and then we quickly got back in the car.

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    Buttons…definitely not Amish but this miniature golf course was listed on the Amish tour map so we decided to stop anyway and see if Amish miniature golf was any different than non-Amish miniature golf.

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    Well it was a pretty tough course, Amish or not.

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    This is Amanda and one of her twins, they are not Amish, although she used to have more contact with Amish people, she doesn’t much anymore. I just liked the way they looked in the fading sunlight and my wonderful boyfriend Arann strongly encouraged me to walk across the street and ask her if I could take her photo. So I did and she said ‘yes,’ and I am really grateful to Arann for the encouragement because that is exactly the support I need to build confidence for my upcoming Southern Exposure expedition. Thanks Arann.

  • the summer begins

    Ok….so all the papers are finished and I have left London and am gearing up to start my photo-intensive summer.

    My first stop was Philadelphia, well after NY it was Philly, then back to NY, then back to Philly and now I am in Greenville, SC, well Reidville, SC….but that is hard for me to remember as there is not a whole lot to remember, at first glance.

    NY was insane…but it felt nice to be able to take photos without feeling like a paparazzi stalker. People are way more laid back about being photographed here and it is very refreshing. But I have to say I think NY is a litle too much for me; Philly is much more my speed.

    It was nice to practice and to have fun with my camera again (well Matteo Borzone’s camera, thanks Matteo.) The only thing is that I am still longing for the 6×6 format and I almost bought a Mamiya 6 in the ridiculously busy and huge B&H store in NY (from now on I will stick with ordering from the website although Chris in the used department was very knowledgeable and helpful). The camera was in my hands and my credit card was out, but when Chris went to ring it up he realized it was already sold. I was disappointed but the good news is that I saved $1,300 and after more time using Matteo’s 6×4.5, I realized that I would prefer a camera with a waist level view finder option, so I am searching for a Rollei instead.

    So back to the adventure….I found some great communities in Philly and I hope to spend more time there photographing at some point in my life. Maybe post-London…we’ll see. Here are some photos…..

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    This is the penny man from Philadelphia. He custom makes outfits for people and enjoys rescuing injured wild animals, rehabilitating them and then releasing them back in the wild. He usually charges people to take his photo but on the fourth of July it’s free.

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    Happy Fourth of July in the birth place of our Nation. To celebrate you can get your face painted…..

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    or you can pay $5 to have your picture taken while holding a big yellow snake, that travels in a suitcase….

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    or you can hold a wooden gun for free and pretend you are in the Revolutionary Army….

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    or you can kick back, relax and wait for the parade to start like Albert.

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    Whatever you do, just make sure you do it with style like Philadelphia’s local celebrity “The Boo.”

  • 486 Bomb Group

    Perfect timing….my family decides to come over in the middle of the end of term two. So all the papers and projects that are due have to be put on hold as we go to Sudbury, England for my Grandfather’s WWII reunion for the 486th Bomb Group. No stress.

    Because many of the men are in their 80’s and this was most likely going to be their last return to Sudbury where they were stationed, I felt it was a worthy excuse to add extra stress to my rapidly approaching deadlines. This trip meant a lot to my grandfather and it was really nice to be able to share it with him, which I would not have been able to do had I not been conveniently studying in London this year.

    I used the trip as an excuse to practice with medium format as a reportage tool and for portraits. The reportage was slow…and some of my focusing was off….and the portraits would have been better if I used a tripod….but I really enjoyed using a new camera (many thanks to Ed Thompson who let me borrow his 6×6) and I discovered I like the square format, and I like the waist level view finder….important to know as I am on the hunt for my perfect medium format camera.

    Here are a few….

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    It was my first British festival….I loved the obsessions people had….like minature tractors of course.

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    I discovered dogs are hard to photograph with a medium format camera….but easier with fat bulldogs.

    Portraits:

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    My wonderful grandparents Bob and Sally Harper.

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    My favorite veteran to photograph.

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    For this portrait I learned not to assume….I assumed they were a couple….so I had them hold hands in the front for one pose…they were a little awkward getting into the pose and admitted they probably didn’t hold hands like that often, which made sense when I learned at dinner they were father and daughter…..opps.

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    One of the best aspects of the weekend was meeting the children who grew up in Sudbury and who spent time at the air field helping the soldiers and watching the planes fly to and from their missions in Germany. They came to share their memories with the veterans. The lady on the right was one of those children. She told us about a plane she built herself and how she believes it flew more missions than any of the planes these men flew.

  • avedon

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    (click image to enlarge)

    For the visual style assessment Matteo Borzone and I chose Richard Avedon and particularly his work from In the American West.

    “I’ve worked out of a series of no’s. No to exquisite light, no to apparent compositions, no to the seduction of poses or narrative. And all these no’s force me to the “yes.” I have a white background. I have the person I’m interested in and the thing that happens between us,” Richard Avedon, 1994.

    In sticking with the Elephant and Castle regeneration theme, we photographed people at the East Street Market. Our hope was to create an honest representation of the market population, yet still maintain a resemblance of Avedon’s style. We were happy with our results, but we realized that by not controlling the subjects as much as Avedon would have, we lost some of the artistic power in Avedon’s images. We learned a lot by working with a large format camera, and that technique will almost certainly be helpful for our future documentary projects.

    We learned we needed to slow down and that means feeling comfortable with the camera and making sure the people know that this is a slow process. We needed to be a bit more selective with our subjects and we needed a larger white backdrop so we could have had flexibility to move the camera and to work with people who were taller or shorter (kids and giants).

  • over-due….

    ok….so I have been horrible at blogging….but I have my reasons…..

    I go back and forth with why and who cares….why blog when I have my personal journal, and I certainly don’t need or want a public one….so then that means I put a watered down, cliff note version on-line…..but with a nauseating amount of information and verbal blabber on the internet, who would want or need to read one more (refer back to the who cares question)….so therefore it would be just for me….but I don’t want a skim milk version as a personal record….so back to the why…..it is close to impossible to get anything done with that incessant rationalizing blabber.

    But my loved ones have expressed an interest in knowing what is happening this year….so therefore I will try and do better about writing….and to do so I will stop thinking of the performance aspect of blogging…my hesitation is similar to the feelings I had when I used to draw. I never wanted to show anyone what I was working on until it was finished because it wasn’t good enough yet…..but I need to remember that a blog is not meant to be the final draft for my photography coffee table book….it is just a place where I can keep a record of thoughts and photos so people who love me can check in from time to time and see how my daily thought process very much compares to the flight pattern of an insect trapped inside a jar, beating against the glass walls trying to escape….so with my “it’s not finished yet” disclaimer out in the open….here goes….

    A quick re-cap of last term….I am still interested in communities. I focused on the East Street Market near my house in Elephant and Castle (I moved from west London to be closer to school)…..my new household is an adventure for another blog entry…..

    For the East Street Market project I worked with the wonderful Claudia Leisinger. I loved working as a team and wish I could work on every project with another person. Come to find out I am a people person…..surprise surprise. And it is so great to have another person to bounce ideas and energy off of…..we were a good balance for each other. It was really nice to share everything. I think the hardest part of photo team work is making sure every person plays an equal role….but I really feel like we shared each photo…..it didn’t really matter who pressed the shutter because there were so many other aspects that went into taking the photos like: gaining access, setting up, crowd control….that I feel every photo belongs to each of us……it is the socialist way to photographing…..unlike the usual slave labor capitalism, which exists in most photo situations…..photographers schmooze and win awards while free labor assistants do everything else and remain anonymous (soap box finished).

    And it was really neat to learn about the history of the market and the area and about a section of the population that does not usually get much attention. Here is a sample of the portraits we took……

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    To read more about the East Street Market project click here.

  • love at first sight

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  • Prince Charming

    my prince

    The biggest challenge of my weekend….taking a photo of a squished toad with my friend’s medium format camera….I don’t think wildlife photography is in my future……to be fair to myself, it was hard. The image projects backwards and to then try and get it straight while upside-down was close to impossible….for me. But just wait until you see the perfection that comes (once I develop the film….ehm….film…not digital….two steps forward, huge leaps b…)

    My favorite is the guy on the bike.

    The photo was taken by my good friend Claudia Leisinger.

  • Three Mills and the Olympics

    The mooring at Three Mills has historically been the home for 20 canal boats and 31 canal boat living people. Until a few months ago when the British Waterways announced that everyone would have to leave for 18 months while the canal undergoes improvements made to transport construction materials for the Olympics. Now the mooring is home for three boats and seven people, who negotiated for special permission to stay.

    This documentary project explores the Three Mills community and the people and animals who are positively and negatively affected by the 2012 Olympic canal improvements. The oldest residents of the area do not have a voice, but if they did, I imagine they would have mixed reviews about the changes.

    Worms, small and pink, live in the canal mud; the mud that is usually freckled with tires, bikes and other human leftovers. For 30 years the worms have been the prey of not only birds who come to hunt when the tide goes out, but also tropical fish enthusiast Brian, affectionately called the Worm Man, and later joined by his son Darren.

    Two days a week for the past 30 years Brian has come to Three Mills to hunt these worms and then sell his catch to tropical fish food buyers. After the canal improvements, the Worm Men will not be able to hunt at Three Mills because the canal, that has historically been tidal, will continuously be floating. Besides being safe from hunting birds and men, it is yet to be determined how the worms will fair being underwater indefinitely.

  • image of beauty

    This is a view from the Greenway, a section of the canal a few blocks away from Three Mills Mooring. People still think of the canal as a place to deposit their trash and unwanted belongings. This is a sight that will be hidden once the canal improvements for the 2012 Olympics are made and the canal is no longer tidal.