Battling Smoke with Smoke

A couple of months ago I photographed the moguls behind WeGrow for photo editor Mark Murrmann and Mother Jones magazine. I was very excited to head out to Oakland, California to shoot these entrepreneurs, the first serious upfront pot businessmen (WeGrow is often referred to as the Home Depot of hydroponic marijuana production).

Shooting “real people” (i.e.: non-celebrities) has its own set of challenges, one of which is knowing how far you can push them before it becomes too aggressive or manipulative. But hey, asking someone in the pot business to smoke a bong is fair game, yes?

But strangely he wasn’t very good at it so I had to have one of his employees coach him a little (when I asked her how she got to be such an expert she told me that she “hit it every morning”). I tried to get the magazine to credit my new friend as a “Paraphernalia Technical Consultant” but that was a no-go.

Top image: Mother Jones tearsheet.

Bottom image: Behind-the-scenes, photo: Mark Murrmann.