Julia B .
Date
Time
Place
September 8, 2024
4:30pm
Staten Island, New York
Natural. Organic. Curious.
Health is Wealth.
If our bodies are temples, if our bodies are trees, if our bodies are flowers, let us fill them with health. Have you ever been to a place that not only makes you feel good with its’ food, but great with its’ space? To me and Julia, that place is Tastebud’s Natural Food.
Locally owned, Tastebud’s Natural Food has been my headquarters for peace and deliciousness for the past 2 years. Some extraordinary things about this market are 1. It’s amazing juice bar, which houses every possible concoction you can think of (my favorite being “Rams Juice”). And 2. the always fresh, always balanced hot bar. The marketgoers or “taste-buds” as I like to call them, are open, friendly people, and a bit weird, which always makes for interesting conversation. The owners, “Auntie” and “Mr. Auntie” make Tastebuds not only a grocery store, but a spiritual space. It made perfect sense to bring SLUG here to shoot.
Had to Do a Double Take.
The day was going completely as planned. Julia and I, who funny enough share almost the identical taste for food and drink, sat down at the bar. After a casual, introspective talk, and a beautiful dish of chickpeas, curry, samosas, squash, and rice, we grabbed the SLUG and made our way to the peanut aisle for the shoot.
I set up the camera deep into the shelf, hidden from the everyday shoppers. I tried to capture a POV of Julia, perusing the aisles, searching for her groceries. Very natural, very effortless. I gave Julia the SLUG and told her to reach for the walnuts… slowly….. very, very slowly…..
She walked up (slowly), filtered through the bags and reached out. For a first time actress, she was an absolute natural. Take after take she became more and more comfortable, at one point disregarding my direction all together and embodying the character she envisioned at TasteBuds.
But then. Something even more natural happened. Just as Julia was reaching for the SLUG, a woman shopping in the store stopped behind her, and froze. Dead in her tracks. There she was - in frame. Exposed. And what did she do? What could have possibly made her stop in the middle of the Tastebud’s aisle… SLUG ! The woman looked directly at the SLUG, glanced up at Julia, stared at the camera, and then looked away. HA !
I could not believe it. She broke the fourth wall. She broke her neck. She entered the SLUG world and didn’t go back. It was a moment. It was special. It was random.
It was perfectly imperfect. SLUG.