FARM Digital capture/22"x19" B&W pigment prints.
In the southeastern corner of Vermont, a community of farmers quietly struggles to maintain a way of life that has existed for generations. They are not motivated by financial gain, political correctness or celebrity, but by a love of the land they work, the animals they raise and the history of that process. Like the heirloom crops and breeds they have kept alive, these farmers are preserving a form of land management that may prove to be agriculture's future rather than its past. Within a nation at odds as to how best to move into an uncertain future, these pockets of the agrarian movement play an increasingly important role in providing alternatives to the unsustainability of industrial agricultural practices and cultivating an increasingly rare sense of community by maintaining a link to the past. Within these individuals survives a respect for the land, its animals and for each other that I feel, as a model, is vital for our future. Whether from multi-generational farming families or escaping from city or suburb in search of a life more fulfilling, each individual is reliant upon the wellbeing of the community as a whole. At first glance romantic, this is a backbreaking and unforgiving way of life offering little respite and less monetary gain. Many will fail. In either case, I am awed by the quiet kindness and respect which underpins their struggle: the gentleness of a hand caressing a ewe which, nevertheless, is ultimately destined for the table. A long term project addressing all seasons, I will share with others what these people so kindly share with me. The project has just begun its second year and I look forward to filling in those areas I have yet to cover as I now revisit the seasons with a good deal of new-found knowledge. As relationships develop, I will expand upon a second aspect of the project: a more personal exploration of the lives of some of these farmers during down-time and between farm chores. I will likely focus on younger individuals as they struggle to establish themselves in an increasingly competitive market while also establishing a family and homelife. It is important to me to depict how a farm is created from the ground up as even those now operating for generations once began. With this project, I hope to address what I believe to be an imperative: that we become more aware at a local level of what the land has to offer us when healthy and of those who sustain it for the benefit of all.
