Sarah Carpenter

There’s Nobody Like Anthony

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 31 Aug 2026 16:31:31 GMT

There’s nobody like Anthony Bourdain. At least, not in my book. There’s a new film that has just come out about him, and it’s got the internet buzzing about the chef turned writer turned travel show host as if he just passed away yesterday. I haven’t seen the film yet. Partially because the kids are still not back at school, and partially because I’m not sure how I feel about it.

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I started watching No Reservations in college as a way to distract myself between studying and classes. But I wasn’t that big of a fan. I thought Bourdain was a bit too edgy. I don’t know why. Maybe it was the tattoos and the strong language. Maybe it’s because he was paired with Andrew Zimmerman’s Bizarre Foods show, and I hated that show. No offense to Andrew Zimmerman. Later, when I got married and was trying very hard to fill my day with workouts, cooking, and trying to figure out my career path, I found myself drawn to Bourdain’s show. It was, and still is, the only travel show I could ever watch and be satisfied with.

And when Parts Unknown came out, I became obsessed. It all started with an episode I caught about Iran. I’d hardly ever seen anything depicting Iran. It’s a difficult thing to not see the beauty of a place you’re so connected with, and his episode about it was so good. It was heartwarming to see the people of Iran being the way I know them to be, hospitable, friendly, overly generous. And Anthony Bourdain picked up on that too.

I then watched every episode. I bought them all. I rewatched them. I found out he’d had his hand in Mind of a Chef, and I watched that too. I read his books, and I even listened to the audio-only version of Parts Unknown on Apple Podcasts.

I have yet to find a food or travel or food show like his. His shows had depth. They had authenticity. They were beautifully crafted. Because he didn’t just travel or eat crazy food. He wasn’t just a chef. He was a writer, an observer. He watched films, loved films in fact. He wrote from the soul, not to get a show but because he loved writing. He was genuinely curious, genuinely in love with trying new foods, genuinely interested in the people he was meeting.

I’m not saying other show hosts don’t have curiosity about where they’re going. But often, they feel like they’re rattling off facts about a place based on a script handed to them by a show writer. They feel like they should be doing something else with their lives entirely. He didn’t. Anthony Bourdain seemed meant to show people the world, to be a sort of ambassador, to give people a real glimpse into how much magic there is even in the smallest corners. He didn’t just eat “bizarre foods”, he tried home cooked meals, upscale restaurants, everything. He was kind and complimentary even when you could tell he didn’t enjoy the food, even when he probably got sick after eating it. And if you’ve ever read his books, you know he got sick. He was also respectful enough not to list the places where it happened. He seemed to want to make the world a bit better.

Even when he was sarcastic or crude in his language, even when he drank too much or seemed a bit off, the shows were good because it felt like hanging out with a good friend who was a normal human with normal human moods and who really wanted to explore the world. I know I didn’t know him at all. I didn’t know past what I saw on T.V. or what he wrote about in his books. I’m sure the dark side got really dark sometimes. But his media personality did inspire me, does inspire me every day.

So I’m not sure if I’ll ever watch another travel show. And I’m not sure that I’ll be able to watch the bio-pic of his younger years without feeling a little bit frustrated by the depictions of his life.

Petersham Nurseries

Sarah Carpenter — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 10:28:38 GMT

For my birthday this year, Ben took me to lunch at Petersham Nurseries. In all the time we’ve lived in London and passed the sign as we walked towards Richmond Park, we’ve never actually turned down the hill and eaten or even wandered around Petersham. So when we were bopping around Richmond on Saturday, I mentioned it would be a place I’d want to eat. Ben booked a reservation.

In the interest of letting me wear cute shoes, Ben opted for a black cab ride rather than having us make the trek to the train. The cab was warm. The driver had the windows down. Traffic, especially for a Tuesday late morning, was slow. The driver had a stop-start driving style that gave me the constant feeling of lurching forward in my seat. And when we arrived, slightly nauseated, hot and ready to leap out of the car, he passed the destination, stopped in front of a lorry, and got yelled at by a man trying to pass him who said, “You’re supposed to be a black cab driver! What are you doing?” My sentiments exactly. Needless to say, the train would have been nicer.

One Measure At A Time

Sarah Carpenter — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 08:35:49 GMT

Cool air wafted through the reception windows, and light hit the olive trees as they waved around out front, making it look like someone was standing there, watching me play. I’d just sat down to practice piano after having done some work in the garden, going for a run, and working on a recipe that I have not yet been able to master.

I started with scal…

The Bear

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:03:49 GMT

I finished The Bear last night, and it’s safe to say I loved it. I have loved every season of The Bear, even the seasons that felt uncomfortable, chaotic, and tense beyond all reason. I don’t know if this is the type of show that makes anybody else weepy, but it made me cry. Over and over. Especially in this final season. I think Ben started worrying if I’m okay every time I looked over at him with tears welling in my eyes.

I started watching The Bear after reading Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. I’d read articles, and by that I mean Ben had told me about articles, in which chefs compared the show to their real-life experiences in the kitchen, and I was on a “life in the kitchen” content kick. I have this fascination with food and restaurants and the process of cooking and the creativity and the love of it. But, beyond that, I have a love of shows and books and films that depict a character who has to face his struggles and inner demons and comes out on top. This show had all of it. It had food. It had tension. It had struggles. It had character development. It had tenderness. It was cleverly written. It experimented with the length of the episode and the pace of each season.

Sometimes it worked. Sometimes it didn’t, and that made me love the show that much more. Because the chaos of how each season was presented replicated the chaos of the characters’ fight to keep the restaurant going. It wasn’t a linear path, and I love that.

As You Walk on the Path

Sarah Carpenter — Sat, 25 Jul 2026 12:36:50 GMT

The Path will appear as you walk on it. Isn’t that what Rumi says? Something like that?

Oh right. He says,

When you start to walk on the way, the way appears.

That has applied to my life more times than I can count. This, though, isn’t a post about my life. This is about photography. This is about the anatomy of a portrait session.

I hardly ever walk into…

The World Cup Finals Are On

Sarah Carpenter — Sun, 19 Jul 2026 19:58:32 GMT

Yes, I realise this picture is old and from the wrong time of year, but it’s got an England football in it so…

Who can focus on writing when the FIFA World Cup finals are on? Especially since my children are having a very noisy workout session and discussion about who they are supporting in the same room. Literally two feet from me.

Also, I don’t know wh…

Can You Just PhotoShop Me?

Sarah Carpenter — Sun, 12 Jul 2026 08:50:02 GMT

This is not a rant.

This is a story and an explanation.

The second photography workshop I attended was hosted by a pair of photographers in Dallas whose businesses were thriving at the time. I idolised these women and valued their opinions, and so when one of them questioned why I didn’t Photoshop out any blemishes on my clients’ skin and insisted that I…

Panicking at Padel

Sarah Carpenter — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 20:03:23 GMT

I suddenly felt very panicked on Friday afternoon when we arrived at the Padel yard. I’ve been dying to start photographing athletes at any level for years now. I want to shoot portraits for the Olympic Games. That is one of my big goals. When I first got the Annie Leibovitz Olympic book, and I found out that portraits of athletes are, in fact, a thing,…

Why I'm loving Studio Work Lately

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:57:15 GMT

It’s been almost 3 years since I got rid of my backdrop stand and all my backdrops, my tripod, and quite a lot of camera gear. I had no choice. I was moving across the pond, so they say, and I couldn’t take everything. I hardly brought anything with me, in fact.

But a few weeks ago, I finally bought a new backdrop stand and a small backdrop and a piece …

Things I wish I hadn't been fussed over

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:20:44 GMT

I don’t know if there will actually be a part 2 to this discussion, but I felt like if I made this part 1, I might start thinking of things to add.

Hi, I’m Sarah, and I just came back from a marathon sports day in which my daughter participated in the first half of the day and my son participated in the second half. We stood in the sun for about 7 hours,…

It's Ruined

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 11:21:17 GMT

Spoilers!!

What’s worse than your favourite show ending? Your favourite show losing all its magic and continuing on for 5 more seasons before ending in a fizzling, anticlimactic montage of previous episodes and a false death.

In 2015, I stumbled upon an article probably called 10 books you should read before the show ruins them. I can’t remember the who…

She Came in 10th

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 09:19:31 GMT

Every year, around this time, my daughter participates in the House Cross Country Run at her school. It’s a compulsory event for every girl from reception (that’s kindergarten for my U.S. readers) to year 6. The girls race around the Common, competing with each other and the clock, with the length of the run increasing as they get older. At the end of t…

An Offline Life

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 08:40:22 GMT

I often find myself jealous of photographers who came up without the internet or social media. They seemed to live in the real world in a way that we just don’t anymore. Likes and comments and reposts just didn’t exist for them, and the only way they knew who liked their work and who didn’t was by reviews and letters or face-to-face interactions. They m…

Summer Morning

Sarah Carpenter — Tue, 26 May 2026 07:57:40 GMT

I live on a tropical island. Actually, it’s a temperate maritime climate, but it feels tropical. Especially on days like this, when the sun is blazing hot by 11:30, and the humidity makes the air thick and my skin sticky. When the weather is like this, one can almost forget that it rained for three months straight and that last week I was still wearing …

Monday Smug

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 18 May 2026 11:24:22 GMT

Lately, I’ve been just obsessed and maybe a little smug about my garden. It feels justifiable. Yesterday we ate chives that are wildly spreading in several of my pots, chives that I only planted to keep the pests away from my roses. The other day I snipped rosemary and oregano to add to my ragu. A few weeks ago, I was arranging tulips on my dining table…

Mapplethorpe

Sarah Carpenter — Thu, 14 May 2026 10:40:19 GMT

I just watched the Matt Smith biopic about Robert Mapplethorpe, and clearly, it made me want to write about him. There was a moment, a brief commentary on my work in which a mentor told me some of my shots reminded him of a Mapplethorpe. Having not studied him enough, I didn’t know what that meant, but now, knowing just how stunning his images are, I’m …

Gosford Park

Sarah Carpenter — Wed, 06 May 2026 13:34:53 GMT

I sat down to watch a film the other night, and Gosford Park came up. I like the cast. Maggie Smith, Tom Hollander, Helen Miran amongst so many other stars. I thought, if nothing else, at least it would be aesthetically pleasing to watch. It’s a period piece, like so many others I fall in love with, set in a big British house, in a time one can only dr…

Yorkshire on a Saturday

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 27 Apr 2026 12:09:42 GMT

The place where the road narrows to one lane of uneven asphalt, where the sheep graze outside wire fences, and the only way to pass an oncoming driver is to hope there is a private driveway to pull into and out of the way, is the place where peace quickly reaches me. Fear and excitement mix within me when we get out onto those English country roads. The…

The Revenant

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 09:30:15 GMT

I was adamant that I would not like this film for no reason other than it looked too frightening. But it was on my cinematography list, the list I’ve made of films I need to watch to improve my photography, and so, with dread in my heart, I watched it. And from the opening scene, I was hooked. I shouldn’t have been. The opening scene is full of violence…

1917

Sarah Carpenter — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 16:45:43 GMT

There is one specific scene in 1917 that is so beautiful I almost forgot how horrifying it was. It’s dark, and Lance Corporal Schofield has just woken up in an abandoned house of some kind. He has very little time left to reach the 2nd Devons, who will attack the Germans at dawn, and who he must warn not to, and he’s got to make it through a town of cru…