Farm Life

"To be interested in food but not in food production is clearly absurd."  I can't possibly begin to talk about farming without a quote from the great Wendell Berry, author, poet, farmer, one of the great thinkers of our time.  So many of us have lost touch with the natural world and most of our kids, and probably many adults, have no idea where our food comes from or how much work goes into producing it.  I feel privileged that I grew up in farm country in southern Illinois.  My family didn't live on a farm, but everyone of my relatives and many friends did, so my childhood revolved heavily around rural life.  Mostly my memories are of freedom, the freedom to roam, to get dirty, to learn the hard way about electric fences, and to just be in nature.  I believe in the small farmers and I can't imagine a world where factory farming is all there is.  Small, local farms bring us the freshest, healthiest food with the smallest impact on the environment. 

The following is a photo essay I did of my Aunt and Uncle's dairy farm back in 2002.  In the time that I had, it was for a school project, I was only able to capture a small part of only one season on the farm.  Why share now?  As much as I love to hate the digital era, and social media, it has made a wonderful platform to get the word out and share work that we feel is important.  So here I am, sharing work that I feel is important, and I would love to do more of these for other small farmers.  These were all shot on TMax 800 film, embrace the grain.  😊

(view as the "web version" it has the best resolution!)