According to a website called www.careerexplorer.com, a photojournalist is a “visual storyteller who uses photography to document and report on news, current affairs and human interest stories… and they may cover a wide range of subjects, including politics, culture, conflicts and social issues.”

While I’m capable of writing plenty of words, there are times when I prefer to sit back and let my pictures tell the story. That’s where Tannis Kowalchuk and the Farm Arts Collective (FAC) come into play, since their performances often encompass politics, culture, conflicts and social issues.

I’ve photographed several of Kowalchuk’s past productions, and have always maintained that each and every one is “a photographer’s dream” because they are (IMHO) visually stimulating as well as deeply thought-provoking. So I have been looking forward to the latest installment of the collective’s decade-long Dream on the Farm project, this one titled “Paradise Lost: Scavenger Hunt.” 

The career-advisor page also suggests that “before heading out to cover a story, photojournalists research and gather information to understand the context and significance of the event.” So before heading out to Willow Wisp Organic Farm, where the collective does its unique, original, highly creative thing, I checked out the FAC Facebook page to gather intel. 

I read a description which states that this installment of “Dream” is “inspired by John Milton’s 17th-century poem ‘Paradise Lost,’ [in which] director Tannis Kowalchuk and the Farm Arts Collective take a contemporary ecological spin on what Paradise means today, what we might be losing, and how to find it again.” 

Additionally, I learned that “the performance begins in a style of Japanese Noh Theatre to tell the story of God, Adam and Eve, and Satan’s temptation in the Garden of Eden.”

Intrigued, I delved deeper while making sure I had multiple camera batteries and good walking shoes packed for the excursion. That’s because I learned that “when Adam and Eve are expelled from paradise, the audience follows them on a scavenger hunt across the 25-acre farmland to encounter performances and interactive experiences, including a deep time geological walk through a great extinction, a podcast interview in a box truck, a Lenape music circle in the sunchokes, and a disco rave in a baby pine grove.”

When asked what inspired her to retell the story of Adam and Eve in this manner, Kowalchuk—the artistic director—was prepared. 

“The reason I told the most familiar story in the world in a most unfamiliar manner,” Kowalchuk said, “is because I want us all to think about this story of creation differently. What and how do we believe in something? With a fanatic dogmatism or as a child with an honest questioning curiosity? And then how do we perceive curiosity? As evil and defying order and authority? Or as unpredictable and wild and ‘normal’ as nature?”

Those questions hung in the air as I experienced the collective’s vision sprung to life last week. Words like entertaining, disturbing, inspiring and sobering flooded my thoughts as I walked, listened and absorbed all that the performance had to offer, while watching it through the lens of my camera. 

Did I see it differently than you did, or would or (more importantly) should? Yes, but I’m not sure my experience was more or less valid than yours. I could easily write a thousand words, but… take a gander at some of my pics, and by all means, go see “Paradise Lost: Scavenger Hunt.” If I’ve done my job properly, you can relive it later through these photos after the show. I know I will.

For more photos of “Dream on the Farm: Paradise Lost,” follow us on Facebook and see the photo gallery at www.riverreporter.com. For tickets and reservations, go to www.myrivertickets.com.

Ask the Google: What is Noh theatre? 

A: “A classical Japanese performance integrating masks, costumes and various props in a style of dance-drama that has been performed since the 14th century.”