My family tree includes immigrant ancestors who made a living by working the soil; I can trace their lineage to people carrying on this work to the present day. That personal heritage inspired the Working Land project. I set out to photograph people at work, their tools and their surrounding landscapes, to explore how a life’s work situated in the physical world transforms a particular piece of land, and in turn, how the land shapes the life of the worker.
Throughout this body of work, I explored themes important to me: the workplace as expression of the worker’s personality, the dignity of rural work, the documentation of a time, place and lifestyle for future generations, and how an attachment to a place can pass down through generations.
I feel privileged that the subjects of these photographs allowed me to tell their stories, to show this part of their lives as an expression of their personalities and vocations. Collaborating with them on the making of these photographs and their hand-drawn maps and diagrams for the exhibit has been richly rewarding for me, both artistically and in terms of human relationships.
Marlys and Cats
Kubitz farm, November 5, 2013: I spent a lot of time at Marlys’s farm as a child, since she is my mother’s younger sister and lives nearby. This is where I started the Working Land project, maybe because I feel at home here. Marlys was a great portrait subject; she wants to help me and she really knows how to be herself.