I will digress for my intro.  You have been warned.

I recently read an article about an interview of some of Instagrams top ‘Influencers” and the good and the bad that comes with their success.  You might think, poor them, they make money taking pictures of themselves all day and get free product.  And maybe you’re right.  But that’s not what this digression is about.  The thing that resonated was this thought from one of the interviewees, “It’s like if you work for an advertising agency, you’re given a job and you create the content. This is the same, but you’re the content. I don’t take selfies for fun,”.  The reason this continues to reverberate in my brain is because I have fallen for this trap – I’m a product/my work is a product and as such I should treat it that way.  Any blog you read about how to get yourself “out there” as a photographer speaks to this type of social media life.  Clean up your posts – only post beautiful pictures, don’t post personal things – no one wants to really see your dog/kid/food choices/outfit/whatever all day long.  And all this may be true, but it sure is exhausting to eliminate the “life” out of your life.  I did it for two seconds and realized, it’s not me.  I can’t eliminate the kid pics, the dog pics, the silly, I finally left my house, or I’m wearing Peruvian pom poms in my hair again instagram/facebook posts because they go hand in hand with the beautiful families/product/events that I photograph.  So here I am throwing conventional wisdom out the window and writing about sources of inspiration in my everyday life.

Grocery stores are part of my everyday life.  And as such, they sometimes become part of  my creative life.  “Life inspires art and art inspires life.”  So true, so true.

Some grocery stores – specifically, Central Market, are gorgeous.  And some might say that so is their price tag.  And it’s true because on some things, it feels like I’m shopping for the Louis Vuitton of chips.  But that’s so one-sided because as evidenced by my husband’s text below, they also offer amazing deals.  And as you can surmise, my weakness is bread, glorious bread.

It never fails, every time I enter THIS grocery store, I immediately want to buy everything.  Like everything.  The shiny eggplants that I would never cook, let alone eat.  The broccoli that my husband hates but looks so amazing.  The multitude of fruits, and fresh greens because it feels so alive.  Why is this different from any other grocery store experience?  I think it’s because the first thing and only thing you see is freshness. You’re not bombarded by packaging, just glorious veggies and fruit in their natural packaging.  Sigh.  I also secretly think they color coordinate.  Maybe they even follow the ROYGBYV color scheme.  I’m not sure, but I do know it’s impactful.

Sadly, they don’t encourage everyday citizens to take pictures of the gloriousness that is their store, but I get it.  So instead I give you Barcelona.  I was reminded of it during my morning grocery store run because in Barcelona I was struck by the beauty that can be a market.  Not only was it beautiful because of the crazy array of offerings but because again, the lack of packaging and the careful color arrangements.  See for yourself.

Food, glorious food.  And it’s true, despite the many cautionary tales regarding the evils of bread, especially of the non-grainy variety, I just can’t quit it.