What Happens When Pulitzer-Prize Photographer Anthony Suau Stays at Spirit Hill Farm?
First of all, he falls in love with the chicken coop. Who wouldn’t? (One day soon it might even have a chandelier inside. The chickens are going to have to learn to say please and thank you first or at least pretend to have some manners.)
I met Tony in New York four years ago when I was there for a few months writing my book and living in the apartment of a fabulously famous author. He was working on his documentary Organic Rising, and I fell in love with his project. It changed the way I ate, and it made me more hopeful for the state of our planet.
Four years later, I cling to that hope, and Tony is putting the finishing touches on his film. He flew west last week to film the fires in Oregon and California, and stopped in at Spirit Hill on his way down to Los Angeles to film the devastation there.
Later he would tell me how he just missed getting hit by a burning tree in the middle of the night when he was out all alone, getting precious footage, but when he came to Spirit Hill we talked about sustainable agriculture as we picked our dinner from the vegetable gardens and looked for perfectly ripe Asian pears to cut into our salad.
I have two most-favorite times at Spirit Hill: sunset and sunrise. We harvested our meal at sunset and then Tony went out a little after sunrise and flew his drone over the property and took some photographs. I’ll tell you, the place makes your heart go crazy when you have a camera in your hands and the light is just right. Everything is so photogenic.
I go through this every morning. Feed the chickens. Look around and see all the beauty. Feel my heart waking up. Take pictures. Have breakfast.
I want to share with you some of the images Tony got because what happens when he stayed here was that he got some gorgeous shots. You can watch the trailer for his film here: http://www.organicrisingfilm.com.
Stay safe, Tony. Spirit Hill thanks you for your commitment to the earth.