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.
tool box
Kubitz farm, October 15, 2013: This collection of tools and spare parts in Evan’s machine shed seems typical of work places I visited. Extra time to organize is scarce so it looks a bit chaotic, but he knows where things are, or at least where to start looking. Over the years and decades, a shop settles into an arrangement that looks random to the outsider, but makes perfect sense to the one working there.