The last two years I’ve attended the Foundation Workshop, in Dallas, TX to be mentored by some of the best photographers in the business. Unlike most workshops, where you bask in the glow of some other photographer’s “amazingness,” Foundation throws you in the fire, giving you two days to pull together a photojournalism story. My assignment this year was the Dallas Farmer’s Market, which would have been great, except that my first day shooting, it was just above freezing and spitting snow. Undeterred, I went to talk to the farmers market vendors, who were all bundled up behind beautiful bell peppers and strawberries and pears, but not a customer in sight. The first man I described my mission to told me, “No problem. You can take all the pictures you want for 30 minutes for $100.”
I told him this was going to get expensive, seeing as how I was to shoot for two days. He told me in that case, he’d let me shoot the first day for free. I went looking for Plan B. Plan B was to walk next door and check out Ruibal’s Plants of Texas. I’m so glad I did. For one thing, it was warmer inside. For another, I met some fantastic people.
Ruibal’s Plants was started by Michael Ruibal, by selling plants in a 10×20 space at the Dallas Farmer’s Market. He showed me a polaroid from that humble beginning below. Many people sold plants at the Farmer’s Market, and many still do, but Ruibal’s went on to have a business occupying a city block right next to downtown Dallas (shown below on the right) along with a Lakewood location and 30 acres of greenhouses, a few miles south of Dallas. Ruibal’s built their business and their reputation on one principle: taking care of their customers. Considering how kind Mark and Matt and their father Mike were when an Illinois photographer showed up on their doorstep, asking if she could hang around and take photos for a couple of days, I’d say they’re just extraordinarily nice people willing to take a gamble from time to time.
I shot all the “regular” things of what everything looked like and all the principle players trying to show a legacy story in a handful of pictures, but after a visit the second day from my team leader and friend, Amy Deputy, I tried to dig in and shoot deeper. Specifically, my marching orders were as follows: “Britt, Shoot Art!”
At this point, I think I should confess, that among certain hardcore photojournalists, I have “a pretty picture problem,” so the idea of intentionally shooting a bunch of pretty pictures at a photojournalist workshop seemed as ill advised as wearing flip-flops to a rattlesnake roundup. But, I trust Amy, so I said, “If you say so…..” Thinking all the while God help me this is NOT going to go over well.
Long story short, it went over very well. I shot details of flowers. I shot sections of leaves. I shot weird things that made all the help look at me funny. (Yes, I think she just took a picture of our garden hose. She must be truly desperate. Poor thing.) I shot birds. I shot puddles. I shot what I felt. I shot anything that moved and a lot of things that don’t. I got in touch with my inner pansy.
We’re only supposed to post a half dozen or so of our images on our blogs, so I tried to pick a few that go well together on the page. Some of these made my Foundation slideshow, some did not. It’s hard for me to just choose a few. I’m printing up large canvas prints of some of my favorite plant detail shots to hang at the Potter’s Shed, in Louisville.
Thank you to my much beloved team mentors, Amy Deputy, Huy Nguyen, Jay Premack and Rachel LaCour. Thank you to my team members, Emmy Sherman, Bonnie Berry, Tak Yi Young , Tina Wilson and Gulnara Samoilova. And thank you for the generosity and kindness of the Ruibal family. It was an honor to meet you and to spend some time with all of you. You have made a very special place in the heart of Dallas.
