Alix Passage

Reverend ‘Peeps’ Sharpton: A Biography

admin — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:58:26 +0000

One of the benefits (or drawbacks, depending on how you look at it) of living in a small town is that everyone knows everyone. Now try being the fourth generation in that same town and not have everyone not only know you but your parents and grandparents as well. Well, Mom is that fourth generation and everyone, literally EVERYONE knows her and her animal whispering ways. So of course it’s Mom that they call when a bird flies into their window and isn’t moving but is still alive, or their cat found a nest of baby bunnies without a mom, or they found a tiny baby squirrel on their sidewalk. Mom will go rescue said animals, rehabilitate them and eventually return them to their natural habitat. With a pond in our backyard we’ve been domesticating geese, ducks and other wild fowl for decades. If they don’t come from our own backyard, attaining them usually begins with a call from a local vet saying someone has brought in (insert wild animal here), can you help? And that’s just what happened when she acquired Peeps, the wood-duck that has been living with her since last spring. He was found running around one of the busiest roads in town after his mother was hit by a car, he was no bigger than a mouse and absolutely terrified; but never fear, Mom is here! And the rest is history.
Peeps (or, “Duck” as I affectionately call him) technically lives in a cage in Mom’s kitchen, but honestly spends almost no time there. He has his own chair in the living room where he spends hours preening and sleeping. If you try to sit in said chair he squawks and pecks to remind you that it’s HIS chair and YOU shouldn’t be there. He takes a bath in the tub every morning, and sometimes in the dog’s water dishes in the afternoon if he’s feeling particularly dirty. He sleeps in the sun with the dogs; something else you should know about Mom’s house is that somehow – no matter what their species – all of the animals get along. I’ve seen our cat watch a cockatiel waddle under his nose without batting a paw, our tortoise and bunny would snack on kale together while the cockatiel preened atop the tortoise’s shell. It’s crazy and unnaturally awesome.
Peeps chomps on dog kibbles when the hounds eat their dinner, if Mom is a few minutes late to prepare it he goes and pecks at the bag to remind her it’s time to eat. And if – God-forbid – Mom comes home and doesn’t immediately greet him he will pick at the hem of her pants until he gets his desired attention. He’s smart enough to seek shelter under the dining room table when things get too hectic and longs for warm days he can spend outside pecking at the grass and swimming in the kiddie pool; ‘cause at Mom’s house – since there’s no kids – we have kiddie pools for our animals. Below I share a few pics of Peeps from tiny gosling to his beautiful, full-grown self because -if you’re like most – you’ve got to see it to believe it!

You’ll also see Peeps’ strange resemblance to Reverend Al Sharpton.

Awesome Osbornes!

admin — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:14:17 +0000

On a bright, wintery morning I had the pleasure of photographing my friend Katie, her husband Chris and their crazy-adorable daughter Ana-Gray in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park. Not only does AG have an AWESOME name and nickname, but she also has the cutest little voice of all time. It’s like little girl voice meets cartoon meets muppet; seriously, I want to record it and listen to it when I’m sad ’cause there’s no way you can’t smile after hearing it!

I’ve known Katie just under two years, but we might as well have known each other forever. We clicked immediately; she’s a fellow photog (a PHOTO BETTY!), creative-type and embraces her self-proclaimed “weirdness” – just like me! We’ve photographed each other many times (this one being one of my faves!) but this was my first shoot with her family. I have to say I’m pretty happy with the results, especially the solo portrait of Katie herself: a pure, introspective moment that embodies her style, thoughtfulness and natural beauty. Trust me, this isn’t the last you’ve seen of her!

Kah – lih – pih – gus

admin — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:47:59 +0000

We all have one.

Jane Fonda made a career with it.

Sir Mix A Lot rapped about it.

So why not create an ACTUAL WORD to describe a nice butt!
A booty!
A bangin’ ba-donk-a-donk!!

My friends, not only does it exist but it’s SO FUN TO SAY!(and yes, it literally means ‘having a well-shaped buttocks’)

CALLIPYGOUS!

I want to say it all high-pitched and quick, like a thin, bespectacled Englishman gasping and scoffing at a young woman’s curves.

Thanks to the bodacious buns of Bootylicious Beyonce, Jessica Biel and J.Lo, the butt has finally been able to get out from under the 90’s rage of silicone “breasts” to make a healthy comeback. You might say our tastes have gone from melons to apples..err – apple BOTTOMS that is.

Ahem.

I challenge you to use it in a sentence today and NOT sound like an adult novel or a thinking man’s porno script.

While you are thinking and/or cleaning up the milk you just snarfed, I’ll get back to my painting of a woman with one callipygous backside! :)

Aileen and Tim – Silly in Love!

admin — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 18:37:25 +0000

I was lucky enough to photograph Aileen and Tim’s Philadelphia wedding with Nicole Peterson of Girl Photography a few months ago. Festivities took place at the Colonial Dames – a hidden downtown gem – where we laughed, we cried and we came home with a new appreciation of life and love. Aileen and Tim’s is truly a love story of resilience, time and how happily-ever-after can come when you least expect it. What I loved most about this couple was that, despite all of the setbacks and hurdles they have overcome in their lives they can still laugh, joke, love and appreciate the small things better than most people I know. Aileen’s sweet, expressive face with Tim’s genuine smile and adoration made these come of my favorite portraits ever (Can you tell? Pretty much the whole post is of them!) They were sweet, silly, exuberant and authentic and this is one wedding I won’t soon forget.

Brooke and Mark, Engaged!

admin — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 16:56:58 +0000

In light of these cold winter days we’ve been having, I thought I’d continue with the summertime theme and post Brooke and Mark’s engagement session which I also photographed at The Cape. This year their June wedding will take place in fantastically urban downtown Philly; to change it up we thought we would do something more natural and romantic for their engagement. These high school sweethearts have lived all over the country thanks to Mark’s job. While they lived in Boston, Brooke frequently helped look after my nephew, Nicolas so having them down to the Cape House for their engagement session sounded perfect. Ocean, beach, sea-grass, gorgeous late-summer light and one kick-ass couple made this session sweet as the summer breeze!

A Little Summer Lovin’

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:54:44 +0000

Though this year we have been spoiled with unusually warm weather, come January I long for the warmth and freedom of summer. Back in August I was able to spend time with my brother and his family at their cabin on Wequaquet Lake in Cape Cod, MA. Part of what makes New England so great is how old fashioned and quaint it is, it’s one of the reasons I love it so much; this cabin was no exception. The simple, very wabi sabi homestead seamlessly blends utilitarian minimalism with quaint and home-y charm with its woven branch banisters, slanted roof-ceiling, cloth doors and handmade furniture. It boasts 3 exquisite porches, a sprawling yard for sports and campfires, a boat for fishing and tubing as well as countless other outdoor activities to keep everyone happy and busy. The cabin was built by my sister-in-law, Robin’s great grandparents in 1905. It was the first homestead on the lake and the original design of the home remains unchanged; even the rocks that create the fireplace came from the lake itself. My niece and nephews are the fifth generation of children to spend summers in this cabin; staying a few days there it felt like we had stepped back to a simpler time with no t.v, no internet, organic play and where family came first. I share my favorite images here, I hope they warm your heart as much as they do mine! You can see the series in it’s entirety in my Pura Vida! portfolio :)

A Wabi-Sabi sort of Saturday

admin — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 15:52:36 +0000

What, to you, makes something Beautiful?

From the beginning of time beauty has been widely (albeit simply) defined as perfection. From Egyptian pharaohs to Ancient Greece through Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, those considered most beautiful were of perfect proportion and symmetry in every feature. Even in the present we use collagen, creams, lifts and tucks to look younger, tighter and fitter so we might achieve this unattainable, God-like beauty status.But what if we went against these principles so seemingly set in stone. What if, instead of youth and perfection beauty was found in age and imperfection? This is exactly what is believed in the Japanese aesthetic of wabi-sabi; that the beauty of an object comes with it’s age, it’s wear, the natural process of which it was created and how it was used throughout it’s life. Though not an easy translation, this ancient Japanese art can be loosely condensed to Wabi: rustic, understated elegance and Sabi: the beauty or serenity that comes with age and wear. wabi-sabi isn’t air-brushed, clone stamped transformed or liquified. Wabi-sabi is crow’s feet, laugh lines, birth marks and freckles. It’s rust on a metal door, the frayed edges of your favorite sweater and the cracks in your grandmother’s china.

In a world where newer is better it’s refreshing to look at things through different eyes; for in wabi-sabi nothing lasts, nothing is finished and nothing is perfect. I’m not ashamed about getting older, wearing jeans with holes or my favorite worn out sneakers. I wear those shoes with love, wear my wrinkles with prideful wisdom and know that I – along with everything else in this life – am still a work in progress.

In this feature I share simple images of things/people that I believe follow the wabi-sabi aesthetic. Sometimes it’s nice to step back and appreciate the small things in life

Here is a blanket hand-knit by my maternal great, great grandmother Elin over fifty years ago. A blanket my mom used with her dolls and my grandmother uses to this day. In this image it hangs on my grandparent’s clothesline that has stood in her yard since the day their grandparents moved in in 1905!

My grandmother’s cookbook. I find it astounding that this little gem and I only met a year ago. How, in all of the time I have spend with my grandmother in her kitchen, have I never noticed this book? Perhaps the wisdom of my thirties is starting to kick in and I’m appreciating things in a different way; I look at this book and it tells a thousand stories of cooking and family from my grandmother’s perspective. I see Christmases and birthdays, backyard barb-e-ques and impromptu dinners with fresh veggies from the garden. Each torn page represents sustenance, bounty, togetherness and the simple pleasures of food and good company. Grammy keeps saying how she needs to get a new one, yet this one still holds steady in her cupboard. Somehow she can’t seem to part with the familiar pages of this lovingly used gift where the voices of those who have passed still sound, loud and clear.

Introducing Throwback Thursday!

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:35:04 +0000

There’s something about an old photograph. That feeling of being transported to another time and place, to see how the world looked from clothing to hairstyles to environment. As photographers our goal is to have people fifty, one hundred years from now look back on our images with that same wonder and nostalgia. So today I’m excited to unveil my newest blog feature: Throwback Thursday!

In my family we love old things and photographs are no exception. Sifting through boxes and albums of snapshots from my grandmother’s attic it seems almost disrespectful to NOT share them. So I begin with my grandmother, Jane on August 2,1952 on her wedding day with her sister, my Great Aunt Jean. It seems that even in the early 50’s the old “Bride looking in mirror” shot was just as popular as it is today!

Now I couldn’t resist sharing these snapshots as they are two of my favorite images of my grandmother. Ever. I’ve always known her to be old fashioned, quiet and conservative. She lives a simple life in her little house with her dog which is why it’s hard for me to fathom her EVER riding a fake horse like a bucking bronco. Yet here is the proof in black and white (err, sepia tone, as it were). On their honeymoon road-tripping to Niagra Falls and down the Jersey Shore, my grandparents came across this..novelty I guess you would call it. I’m sure my grandfather had something to do with the posing and snapping of the photos, it makes me chuckle to think about what their conversation must have been to create these amazing memories. I hope they bring a smile to your face too!

Introducing Sundays at Mom’s House!

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:06:33 +0000

My Mom’s house in Weston, Massachusetts is one of my favorite places in the world. This year it will have been in my family for 110 years and it’s the best place for me to recharge, reconnect and regroup. But most importantly, it’s my Home. My Roots. The house at 30 Warren Ave was built by a fellow by the name of Foote in 1898 on the banks of hand-dug Foote’s pond. In 1902 my great, great grandparents, Edwin and Jessie Compton paid $1,500 for the house and land and moved in; my great grandfather Dan was just 2 years old. Below is the original house. The house where Edwin and Jessie died, where my grandparents were born, where my Mom grew up and where I spent at least part of every single day from childhood to college. After my parents divorced in 2001 my Mom bought the house from my grandparents with big plans to remodel the main house and add on a separate apartment for my grandparents to live in. Those renovations happened, but unfortunately life happened too. My grandfather, also named Dan, died in 2003 before renovations were complete. This is actually a painting of the original house that my Mom had commissioned for my grandmother shortly after his death. My favorite part is my Grampy sitting in the kitchen window, just like he always did and now he always will.

Below is the house as it looks today. We tried to keep the integrity of the original home from exterior architecture to indoor details like trim, stairs and flooring. The basement hasn’t changed in over a hundred years! But I haven’t shared the best part yet. Our backyard.

Footes pond. Quintessential New England; timeless, quaint and dripping in historical charm. Both recreational and functional, in the times before refrigerators my grandparents would cut out blocks of ice from the frozen pond and deliver it to neighbors. I learned to ice skate here, I caught my first fish, frog, turtle, snake, and salamander; we raised goslings, threw rocks for our dogs and took countless “unplanned swims”. The old photo on the left is as it looked circa 1950 (complete with Canada Goose!), on the right is a more current snapshot of our backyard splendor in peak fall season. Can’t get much more New England than that!

And what would Mom’s house be without MOM?? My mom is a weathered New Englander, an animal whisperer and a hippie at heart. Thanks to her, throughout my life I’ve owned, raised, handled and loved countless species of animals from traditional dogs, cats, rabbits and gerbils to wild birds, domesticated rodents and exotic reptiles. I’m sure it had some influence on my sister, Sabrina becoming a veterinary technician! In true Mom fashion she spent part of Christmas Eve, 2011 trying to get a handle on Raffi, her angora-haired rabbit. You might recognize him as the giant fluff-ball on her lap! At Mom’s House, animals join you for EVERYTHING whether you want them to or not. Here she is joined by Stella the Great Dane, Seal and Zoe the Italian Greyhounds and Peeps, the wild wood-duck she’s raised since it was only days old. Typical!

So there you have it, an introduction to Mom’s House and a glimpse into what makes me who I am. Stay tuned for whacky stories, animal profiles and anecdotes from the zoo-like, love-filled historical place that I call my original Home.

Side note: it’s funny the things you notice in hindsight. I find it odd that we’ve never had pet fish.

“Nice Peduncles, Baby”

admin — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:17:24 +0000

That’s right, I’m bringing back Words on Wednesday! A place where I channel my love of words, their sound, meaning and place in our strange English language. So let’s re-post Peduncle.

Peduncle. I’ll let you ponder it for a while to see if you can decipher its meaning (if you don’t know it already) And no, it has nothing to do with your uncle’s feet.

Derived from ped (foot) unculus (stem), it is literally a stalk-like structure supporting a cluster or single flower or the fruit of a fungi.

Put simply, a flower stem.

It also has something to do with the brain, white matter and other things that get way too anatomical for my taste. Were you close with your guess? I know I was not.

Sabrina found this word for me, I think part of it’s lure is that it really doesn’t sound like what it means at all. Flowers are delicate and fragile beings, even the word ‘stem’ sounds slender and sleek. But peduncle? What a lumbering, cumbersome beast of a word. It’s awkwardness really takes shape as it jostles and tumbles out of my mouth. I don’t know whether I want to spit it out or swallow it’s syllables into a series of harsh consonants.

Try using it in a sentence today. Just do yourself a favor and don’t tell a girl she’s got nice peduncles ’cause your chances will be blown, my friend. Stick with stems on that one. Better yet, don’t say anything about her stems otherwise you might be using YOUR peduncles to escape the daggers flying out of her eyeballs.

She is, after all, a delicate flower.