what's in a name?

Funnily enough, “Apollo” started as a name for the chicken coop we built in March 2017 for our baby chicks that we raised in our bathroom (yep!). 

It all started when we decided to give a nod to our New York origins by naming our chickens: Highline, Harlem, Broadway, and Hattie (Manhattan).  Taking it a step further, we put out a Facebook blast for a name for our coop and a college friend of mine gave us “Apollo” – a reference to our past in Harlem near the iconic Apollo Theater; and the perfectly balanced pun for our feathered friends’ home.

Unfortunately, right around the holidays in December 2017, a fox jumped our 6’ fence and snatched our chickens up.  It was a lesson in livestock ownership – don’t give names to your livestock because you wind up getting attached – we still say screw that because we refuse to let members of our family remain nameless.

Shortly thereafter we were brainstorming ideas for our photojournalistic partnership and “Apollo” tiptoed back into our minds.  In a series of “aha moments” we realized that “Apollo” meant much more to us than an homage to our past and a funny pun:  it represented to us what the ancient Greek and Roman god, Apollo, did for those living in Hellenic times, which was the sun and the light.

As a photographer, Heather treats natural light like a precious resource, allowing the path of the sun to determine when and where to place her subjects.  “Golden hour” is her absolute favorite time of day; it is the short window of time where as the sun begins to set she can actually see the aura that radiates from our bodies.  In her secular mind, this light is nothing short of a miracle.   

As a student of philosophy, the sun in Plato’s allegory of the cave represents truth, ‘the good,’ and that which all life derives from.  I'll save you the lecture and paraphrase the rest of chapter seven of The Republic where it says that the light that we get from the sun that enables us to see is just like the goodness we need to carry in our minds to live.  Without the sun and the light it gives off we would be blind, wandering about the world; and without the idea of ‘the good’ or truth in our souls, our actions and the paths we take we would be directionless.  

Apollo Fields is a place for us to remember where we came from, to honor the natural world, and to bring good people together to share the light beneath the sun.