One of our very first plans was to get Josh Kelly @jack_harlem to take some photos of Big Bluff for us.
I first saw Josh’s work at our hairdresser’s, Corina Kelly @hair_by_corinakelly. Corina is the best friend of Josh’s now-wife but no relation, even though they have the same last name. How confusing!
It was a full wall photo mural taken at Bryon Bay. It is of two kids sitting on the beach, one in an Indian headdress. It is a photo that you can just keep looking at, you can see so much spirit and personality in it.
Some time after that, Josh was regularly taking photos for Dimity’s work, and we asked him to take the photos at Pippa’s Year 12 Pre-formal. As we knew, he was excellent at taking shots of people. Josh can capture people and allow what’s inside to be seen in a photograph. We continued to follow his progress, and there was never any question that we would ask Josh to take our first photos of Big Bluff.
When I asked Josh about coming down to photograph for us, I was almost shocked at how enthusiastic he was to do the project, but also, he made me think. He asked a lot of the right questions: what are we trying to achieve, who is our audience, what’s important to us to showcase, and how do we want to present our farm.
When I talked to Josh about our wish to show people the cows that eventually become the steak that you eat, he said, we have to be realistic: as much as people want to see a farm and how it works - to connect cute fluffy cows to steak on your plate is difficult! That’s a good point. Even for people who love steak or love chicken drumsticks, it’s not always easy to connect the dots.
But we have become really disconnected from where our food comes from and how much effort it takes to get it to the plate. So it’s important to be able to show that. It takes a lot of effort to get your meal to you.
For many people, a picture is the best way to convey a message. That’s why Josh’s shots are so important. He is able to accurately capture what we do, and convey a sense of the place.
We also, of course, wanted to be able to show people where you can stay with us - we have two self-contained cottages so we needed photos of those spaces too. Josh suggested that we show people in those spaces, instead of sterile photos, so we enlisted the help of our two daughters and their partners to be the ’talent’. So now we have some beautiful shots of Big Bluff and of some of the family too.
Unfortunately our middle child Nic couldn’t be there on the day of the shoot, but hopefully there will be more opportunities as time goes on so Josh can chronicle the changes in seasons, and the changes to Big Bluff as we progress our business.
If you want to see some absolutely beautiful images and read the inspiring story of why Josh’s business is call Jack Harlem, go to his website - it’s uplifting!
