As a photographer, being asked to pick a favorite photo out of all that you’ve taken would be about like being asked which kid is your favorite as a parent I’d imagine.

I have many – many – photos I’ve made over the years that I  absolutely love for various reasons. But, as the answer to a prayer, I can’t think of any single one that has had more of an impact on my life – than the one I’m sharing here in this post has had over the years.

It all started back in my conceptual still life class – in 2002 – while I was in commercial photography / ad school. The instructor for the class was pretty hard-core, and the name of the assignment that I shot it for was “Create A Recognizable Object Out Of Found Objects.”

Something about the assignment spoke to me. I wanted to do something really great for it that meant something rather than just throwing something together for the sake of completing the assignment. So, I put off doing anything for it at all until I couldn’t afford to any longer.

It was towards the end of the quarter, and one night I was in the darkroom printing for another class after having gone a day or so with no sleep at all when, in frustration, I prayed and asked God to give me an idea for the assignment. I specifically asked Him for an idea and said I’d do anything he wanted me to do. Anything.

Well, within five minutes or so of asking God to give me an idea  for it – He did  – and this photo, Forbidden Fruit, has since become not just another photo to me, but a reminder of Him having my best interest at heart.

The idea came to me that night, and everything in it had a clear meaning – or concept – which is a bit unusual for me since I wasn’t a strong conceptual thinker. I was excited to shoot something that I had a clear vision for, so I went and bought what I needed to get it done with – most notably – the $80 worth of apples you see in the shot.

I went in the studio, set up the shot, lit it, composed it through my 4×5 large format camera – and inside of 45 minutes or so had created the image you see here when I looked through the ground glass of the camera. I shot it, got it processed and loved what I saw once I had it on the light box as a 4×5 transparency.

I showed it to my instructor who told me that he thought it was great and that he’d give me an “A” on the assignment, but if I’d go back and shoot it again with a snake as a serpent in it, that he’d give me an A+ instead. I thought about it and decided to decline his offer, stick with “A” and leave it as it was. The way I saw it was that if God had wanted me to put a serpent in it – He would have included that in His answer to my prayer.

Fast forward to graduation time for from ad school. Forbidden Fruit was one of the strongest – if not the strongest shots in my book / portfolio. I had it right in the middle of it – between two other shots that clearly had religious meaning to them as well. With good intentions it was suggested that I pull all three of them out of my book while out showing my work to get work as a photographer or photographer’s assistant after graduation.

Why was this suggested – with good intentions I emphasize? Because they said there were so many liberal people in the advertising / commercial photography business that would likely be put-off by those particular shots being in there. It wasn’t politically correct for me to share them I was told.

That person was likely right in saying that, but I didn’t care. And to drive that point home, well, for graduation, each of the students were encouraged to share a couple of their favorite assignments they’d done while in school there. And of course, “Forbidden Fruit” was one of those I shared. With much anxiety about doing so, I stood up in front of the school’s instructors, all of my classmates and their families, my friends, and my family – and I told everybody the meaning behind the shot on the screen in front of them:

I had bought the rattiest looking red apples that I could find and the nicest looking green apples on purpose. I neatly lined up the green ones in the shape of a cross, and then arranged all the red ones around it in a jumbled mess. Then, I lit it where the light faded into darkness as it got further away from the cross. The green represented life, and the red fading into black represented a life without God.

In short, Forbidden Fruit represents that the further you drift away from that cross as a Christian, the darker and more of a mess your life is liable to become.

I shared with everybody that day at my graduation that it was a very clear and quick answer to a prayer – and that it is very rare for God to answer your prayers in such a quick and clear way. I told them all that they may not get the answer they want but if they’d take the time to ask that they’d get an answer from Him eventually. I then said that me sharing the story behind the shot with them was my way of thanking God for getting me through the program there – which was no cake walk.

I sat down, and had the president of the school, who is a devout Jewish man, and was / is very much respected there – walk over in the middle of the ceremony to shake my hand and thank me for what’d I’d just done. After it was over, I had the parents of a few of those I graduated with that day come over and thank me as well.

As somebody that had grown up Southern Baptist, for the first time ever, it really felt like I had done something right in the eyes of God after having continuously being made to feel as if I was a disappointment to Him.

If you’re not careful, you can let other Christian’s interpretation of what The Bible says make you feel guilty for breathing the wrong way – and I had for far too long. I never quit believing in God, but I had quit even trying to live up to the standards He set – that nobody is capable of living up to.

Fast forward again another six years or so: I received an email one day from another Atlanta based photographer inviting me and a whole bunch of other local photographers to his studio for an event he was hosting for a local church called “Buckhead Photography Project.”

I decided to show up for it, and once there, staff members from the church explained to us that they had this huge atrium wall that needed some art work on it and said they were going to start getting participating photographers to submit a photograph for it, and then they’d display them on their huge wall for a period of time while we all submitted shots for the next assigned theme to then be printed and hung up.

The first theme they gave us was “relationships” and it automatically brought Forbidden Fruit to mind, because it’s about your relationship with God.

So, I submitted it and a few weeks later I received an email from somebody letting us photographers that had contributed to the project know that they were going to be doing a meet-and-great after their 6:00 pm service that Sunday, and that it’d be a great networking opportunity for us if we wanted to get there just before the end of that service, find our printed photo, and stand next to it with some business cards on hand.

I decided to not just do that, but to show up early enough to catch their service that night – and was blown away by what I’d heard from the preacher on the stage – Billy Phenix – as he delivered his service titled, “The Real Me Meets The Real You.” I want go into the details of it, but, what he said made me come back the next Sunday, and the next, and the next, and the next…

I got to be a regular attendee at Buckhead Church and looked forward to church on Sunday’s for the first time in my life. Before long I found that the person I strived to be began to change for the better. That’s been about eight years ago now, and I have since become a  regular volunteer on their production team as a camera operator in an effort to help facilitate for others the same amazing experience I had when I first discovered the place.

And most recently, I credit this one photo – this one prayer – to me finding my wife who I adore and met through that same church. I sometimes wonder if she is God’s way of thanking me for not tucking His answer to my prayer away where nobody could see it – in the interest of being politically correct. I sometimes wonder where I’d be right now if I had not asked for His help, listened to His answer, and shared it with others as I have through this one single photo.

I can’t say that Forbidden Fruit is my absolute favorite of all the photos I’ve made, but I’d be willing to bet that it might be God’s.