Introduction

I grew up in an apple orchard in Sonoma County, California, in the 1980s, next door to a minicommune and some goat farmers. We had no TV, we were vegetarian, and we had a huge vegetable garden. Because of the weather, my brother and I were able to spend most of our time outdoors. Our family also spent a lot of time in the kitchen together—in the summers we picked black-berries for pie, and in the fall we made everything imaginable with apples. Years of watercolor classes and dressing friends up for photo shoots in the orchard led me to become an art major in college. I think I really got serious about a career in the arts when I studied abroad in Italy. I got my first “real” camera that year while at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna (which is often considered Italy’s culinary capital).