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© 2021 Sarah Rice
During an impromptu skinny-dipping session in the pond on the property, Daniel and Jon lift Stephanie skyward. Life at the commune operates at a different pace then life off the farm. Days are filled with work, evenings are filled with relaxing and enjoying each other's company.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Mardock the Sun God offers love and a smoke, two of the things he does best and most frequently. Mardock picked this commune specifically because it’s the least hierarchical of all the places he’s been. He said he feels like it is his home; he’s free here.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Port and Rejoice have taken on the goat responsibilities. They built goat pens all over the property, and feed and milk them daily. Port says his parents are happy he has settled into a healthy routine, but they keep pushing him to move on from the commune.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Stephanie raised these ducks for their meat, then when the time came she researched how to slaughter them and headed down to the pond to learn firsthand.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Luna stretches while gardening with Irena. Everyone at the commune decides where they want to put their work hours in every week, and everyone works the same amount of hours. Some work in the gardens, some cooking and cleaning, others run the organic seed business that makes the commune self-sustaining.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
She was Ingrid when I met her. The list of names she will answer to has grown to include Straand Beest and Jay. Changing your name is a common practice at the commune. Some change their name only once, some very frequently, and others never.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Seasons change on the farm, members come and go. The only certainty is the continuation of that cycle.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Commune members rehearse for a play that will involve the vehicles shown during the annual Land Day celebration, when the commune marks the day they got the land to begin over 20 years ago. The vehicles were at different times locations and boats driven around during the play.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Everyone at the commune is given their own room. While resources, work, food, and common spaces are all shared, every member has a place to retreat to if they desire. Even married couples are each allotted their own space.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Brayden and Austin came to the commune together and planned to stay just for the summer, but like many who pass through those plans change. Their relationship with the farm and with each other continues, although they don’t spend all of their time on the property.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
“They follow me everywhere, they think I’m their mom,” Stephanie said of the two turkeys being raised by the commune to eventually eat. She went for a swim and the turkeys followed her right into the pond.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
The commune is known as an intentional living facility because decisions are carefully thought out. They've built a life filled with respect, consent, and conservation. From a hug to a back rub, physical contact occurs only with consent.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Feathers stuck on bare legs in the aftermath of a slaughter. Living closer to the land sometimes means killing your own meat, and being aware of where all your food comes from. There is a deliberateness at the farm that permeates everything.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
The farm changes drastically with the seasons. Leaves falling from the trees mean the manic days of summer are over - long work days spent shipping seeds and working the gardens and fields, with much of the work done in the early morning hours or fading evening light to avoid the hot Virginia summer sun.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Members hang out in the smoke shack, where everyone smokes to prevent tobacco from contaminating any of the plants growing on the farm. Decisions at the commune are made by consensus, and are always considerate of environmental concerns. Sundays are meeting day, when members meet for hours to go over all business and make decisions together.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Once a year the farm throws a party to celebrate the day, now 22 years ago, when they got the land to begin the commune. Friends, neighbors and relatives come, and there is always a bonfire.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Johnii describes himself as a traveler. He is not one of the permanent residents, but rather one of the many who pass through and stay a short time.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Jason and Mac met at the commune. After several years of dating they married next to growing bean plants in one of the gardens. Friends and family celebrated with an epic bonfire until the morning hours.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
When word came around that goats had escaped Rejoice and Johnii jumped up from the fire pit to go on a late-night adventure round-up. The animal population at the farm keeps growing. There were chickens and goats, then ducks, and now pigs and a cow. Anyone at the farm can experiment with any kind of project they want - it’s a place to learn, hands-on.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
Sappho and Anya play in the fading light. Children are now, for the first time, a constant presence at the commune. In it’s early days families would move over to a larger nearby commune when they had children, for more support and other kids around. Now there are a handful of children, some brought with new members and some born on the property.
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© 2021 Sarah Rice
The property is a mish-mosh of buildings. This is the original farmhouse from the original farm, where members live today. There are also three residences they built, and a barn and a trailer that all house members.
Public Story
What We Need Is Here
Credits:
sarah rice
Updated: 03/21/17
This work is called What We Need Is Here. The title comes from a Wendell Berry poem, who I read a lot of when I'm in Virginia. We’re all there to see what happens when constraints are lifted, and we can really expand some part of ourselves. Whether that part is photography, or farming, anarchy, or independence.
The commune members tell me these photographs capture what it feels like to live there, and that is the goal. With all of my work I try to build a bridge to create connection between the subject and viewer, all while documenting connection. My hope is that if I can make you feel what the communards feel, even for a second, you’ll be a little closer to someone you perhaps thought you had nothing in common with.
And so I continue go go back and make pictures. After six years some there are just opening up to me, and intimate photos that I couldn’t have made even two years ago are now possible. In that time who knows what will happen with the political situation in this country, but I have a feeling a lot more disillusioned youth will be looking for other models of living, which this commune happily provides.
