hello. i'm lucy (lucinda actually, but lucy is just fine).
i'm an artist living in victoria, australia, a great place to live if you love good food which, it will soon become apparent should you hang around for a bit, i do. nourish me is a collection of recipes, thoughts on and pictures of mostly vegetarian food. there's a little family of cameras i use to tell stories, so occasionally it's about them, and there is a lot of talk about books. i used to have a clear vision of what i wanted from nourish me, but these days i go with the flow. it's become a quiet spot to think about photos and words and how they fit together.
for a long time i dreamed of a large, quiet patch of land to grow food. as of september in 2010 we now travel between a little rental place in the city and the macedon ranges. there are plans afoot, but for now it is what it is. it's no bad thing, let me tell you.
needless to say, gardening now features pretty heavily here too. as it should. we've 1 1/4 acres to look after. it's a lot of mowing, and from time to time you'll hear me cursing about the roses (vicious bloody beasts) but it's proving to be the single most rewarding pursuit of my life thus far.
the light on the laundry sink may just be the best bit.
we built a brick oven in the front yard this year and a friend told us the other day that it looks a hundred years old already. it will be nice to get it fired up one day soon. it's not stopped raining since we got the place.
some nice people have said some very nice things about nourish me, and loathe as i am to blow my own trumpet, these made me happy:
the age (melbourne) magazine, issue #76, february 2011:
"Lucinda Dodds is an artist and photographer who whimsically documents everyday life and shares some marvellous, mostly vegetarian, recipes."
epicure, the age, november 2010:
"There's a serenity that descends on reading the recipe-laced musings of Melbourne artist Lucy Dodds, who has a love of fennel and Moroccan preserved lemons. Reading her blog is like putting your feet up on the cyber porch with a cup of Darjeeling. Also edible-garden updates and soulful images of nature tracing the changing seasons."
City Weekly, september 2011
"Melbourne artist and photographer Lucy Dodds has peppered her blog with images so gorgeous you almost don't need to read the accompanying words to appreciate them. When you do, however, you get a rich mixture of recipes and reflections on everything from radishes to jam."
some other people have complained that i don't show finished pictures of food often enough. that's because i cook dinner in, possibly, the same way as you - at night, while the hungry horde awaits. by the time the meal hits the table the good light may have gone, or maybe i just can't be bothered to get set up. either way, it means the pictures here aren't descriptive, but are evocative of the spirit of the meal, and besides, i'm more interested in the process of cooking and the incredible, wonderfully inspiring fruit and veg i have access to than glamour food-styling (though i do that, too).
f.a.q.
(well, often enough.)
an honest kitchen:
a collaborative effort between Kathryn Elliott, a sydney-based food writer and nutritionist, and myself. it is an ad-free, occasional publication about healthy eating, aimed at providing sensible (not fashionable!) information and delicious, simple recipes. you can read a little more about our venture by clicking here.
cameras:
i rediscovered film during 2008 and haven't really been able to go back to digital. film has a sumptuous quality that you can't quite put a finger on, one that also entails a certain amount of discipline. you have to work a little harder before pressing the shutter. you have to think a composition through. you learn a lot about light and how it bounces around the frame.
i can't offer you much in the way of advice, but using an incidental, hand-held lightmeter and trying not to take anything with an f-stop of less than 5.6 makes the kind of photos i like. excessive use of bokeh shits me.
because i happen to really, really like low light, a tripod has been enormously helpful. a pile of books and a stool works a treat and should not be sniffed at; tripods are a luxury in my opinion, and it's best not to get hung up on equipment.
i use a holga,
a pentax k 1000,
and a hasselblad 500 c/m
clients:
i spent some time writing about children's books for magazines like Magpies and Good Reading, and worked as a photographer for Wellbeing magazine. i write recipes and help develop new products for Select Harvests, and worked as a photographer with UK designers Him+Her most recently. in a previous working life i was a bookseller, but art (drawing and print-making to be specific) is my background, the thing that makes me breathe, makes me feel alive. i use cameras these days instead of charcoal, and they express some of things that i found difficult with drawing tools alone. one day soon, i hope to go back to drawing. you never know when the bug will bite.
contact:
hey, if you see a photo here you like, one that you may like to buy, let me know:
lucindadoddsATyahooDOTcomDOTau
or just say hi.
