{"id":4700,"date":"2011-11-15T02:34:50","date_gmt":"2011-11-15T10:34:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/?p=4700"},"modified":"2011-11-15T02:35:24","modified_gmt":"2011-11-15T10:35:24","slug":"circle-acres-a-photo-essay-on-organic-farming-and-rural-living-by-john-cranford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/15\/circle-acres-a-photo-essay-on-organic-farming-and-rural-living-by-john-cranford\/","title":{"rendered":"“Circle Acres” : A Photo-essay on Organic Farming and Rural Living by John Cranford"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

(All photographs copyrighted by John Cranford<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n

Circle Acres<\/strong>, a project I started in 2008, focuses on documenting the lifestyle of a young couple in rural NC who have devoted their lives to organic farming while distancing themselves from modern living. Originally, I had the intention of making some portraits while doing some casual shooting. No pressure. I was curious about their dedication to sustainable living and how they were working towards this lifestyle. The more I hung out and shot the more I realized there was a story to tell. As I looked through the images, the vocabulary began to present itself. I had started a photo project.<\/p>\n

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\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

How to make the work with a method in mind. At this point, I had found a subject that I was interested in and that I felt needed a voice. How was I going to go about shooting the project? Film? Digital? What camera(s) and lenses? A lot to think about when starting a long term project. Initially, I began shooting with a Mamiya 645 and a Bronica 6×6. I was happy with the images that the cameras produced but I knew something was off. Maybe I wasn’t shooting it right. Maybe the tools were not lending themselves to the subject the way I had envisioned. I couldn’t place it.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

A while before starting the project I had been researching the Mamiya 7. A medium format rangefinder camera that was known for producing beautiful 6×7 negatives. I took the plunge and bought a used first generation Mamiya 7 with an 80mm lens. After the first roll I was hooked! This was my first rangefinder camera and I was in love. The camera presented a new way of working that I had never experienced before. It let me give priority to making images. I was no longer hindered by metering modes, AF points, histograms, and chimping. Things were simple. I had a flow and a zen way of shooting now. The final images used for the edit where all shot with the Mamiya 7. I now own a 5DmkII which I use to shoot video and stills with but I find myself going back to the rangefinder more and more. What did I learn? Stick to one camera and one lens for a particular project. Some will disagree with that notion but I think it can be liberating. Less is more.<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a><\/p>\n

Street photography, off the streets. I love street photography but actually, I don’t shoot much street. I admire the work of such photographer Robert Frank, Vivian Maier, Gary Winogrand, Joel Meyerowitz to name a few. I believe street photography is a way looking or seeing the world around us. Not just on the street and not just an aesthetic or a particular subject matter. Where am I taking this? Don’t be afraid to take it off the street. I believe this kind of shooting can be applied anywhere. I think while working on this project I picked up the sensibility of street photography. Most of the images just unfolded before me. I was just there capturing the moments with a quite ‘click’ of the rangefinder. I was dipping out of the stream of time and taking some with me. -\u00c2\u00a0 John Cranford<\/p>\n

More photos from “Circle Acres”<\/h2>\n

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 <\/p>\n

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Links<\/h2>\n

Check out more of John’s work at\u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/john-cranford.com\/<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0and check out his blog at\u00c2\u00a0http:\/\/blog.john-cranford.com\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(All photographs copyrighted by John Cranford) Circle Acres, a project I started in 2008, focuses on documenting the lifestyle of a young couple in rural NC who have devoted their lives to organic farming while distancing themselves from modern living. Originally, I had the intention of making some portraits while doing some casual shooting. No […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[372],"tags":[1006,1005],"class_list":["post-4700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-photographers","tag-circle-acres","tag-john-cranford"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/11_752300062009-06-20.jpg?fit=630%2C500&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/erickimphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}