Back to the Bees

I am excited to have been invited to be part of a photo exhibit, I have never had work in a gallery before and so this was a nice surprise to be asked to participate. The show will highlight the unique pockets of Florida that make Florida, well "Florida." And in thinking where I would focus on the series of photos that I wanted to personally exhibit, I thought it was best that I return to the "Forgotten Coast" and get back to the bees and document their feast on the nectar from the yearly Tupelo bloom that is fast approaching. For those of you who don't know Tupelo Honey is the absolute most delicious honey in all of the world, and the Tupelo tree only grows in a very few places in the South East. The tree looks like it sprang straight from the mind of Dr Seuss growing tall and springing up and out of the brackish river water flowing through the swamps like iodine. The crown jewel of honey is located deep in the swamps of Wewahitchka, FL which we affectionately refereed to as "We-Wah"

So I will go back to the Tupelo bees and look up all of the curious and genuine folks that were a big part of my life while I lived and worked in that area. A big chunk of my early 20's were spent in the Pan Handle working on a few Victor Nunez films where while working in the art dept. I learned how to tend to bees in the Tupelo swamps, work an oyster boat in Apalachicola, learned the life of shrimpers in Carrabelle, and mastered a canoe in some of the most gorgeous springs in the region. I can't wait to go back and bring my camera to this place that I fell in love with 15 years ago and try and capture "The Forgotten Coast." I feel like I am going out on assignment. I can't wait to go back and be around the bees again. It was the first real fear I had ever concurred, standing in a swarm of bees with just my calm and confidence to keep them from getting stingy. It feels awesome.

Of course I will share what I bring back here when the show runs, below are a couple of scanned images from when I was working on Ulee's Gold, and the last was from a recent photo trip where I ran into an abandoned bungalow on the St Johns River that had been over taken by a colony of bees.

All the Love in the Universe ~ Me

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