A Visual Love Letter to Young Farmers
Meet some of the beloveds who seed, nurture, and harvest our food
Welcome back to The Link, a bi-weekly circularity newsletter making the connection between regenerative farming and you, every other Tuesday.
Interdisciplinary artist and educator Charlotte Woolf has been “subverting the image of traditional farmers” with beautiful photography since 2011, but has rooted herself in farming communities her entire life. From working on different farms as a kid to WWOOFing, Woolf understands the vital relationship we naturally cultivate with the local biomes around us if we allow building community to guide our efforts. “I wanted to photograph something where I was living to make sense of my place and community. So often we want to go elsewhere, but I find it is often best to dig in,” says Woolf.
I recently sat down with Woolf to discuss her recent body of work “Expanding Agriculture” to learn more about some of the stories behind the portraits and get her thoughts on how to resist the industrial world that’s trying to rip us away from nature at every opportunity.
How did you approach photographing the farmers in this series?
Finding the farmers is truly a balance of reaching out, building a web, and trusting the process. I was driving by Foxtrot Farm & Flowers and saw the pride flag and jotted it down, which is how I met Kate and showed the work there last summer. I found Stefano online because he is doing the work as a trans butcher, and he connected me to Innocence Powell of Abundance Farms.
Something that drew me to your work is your lens (sorry for the pun) on young farmers. When thinking about food sources over the next 20 years, it’s frightening to me (without sounding ageist about, well, age) that the average American farmer is 65, and only 8% of farmers are under 35 and the many barriers they face in a challenging system.
The one thing every person I talked to had in common was the scarcity of land and how that directly impacts their livelihood. Many farmers I work with are renting or have an arrangement with landowners. I photographed one farmer who is full-time employed by landowners so they can get health care, but they really hope to have their own place someday. I’ve also seen some really cool examples of people banding together to work on the same plot of land. I’ve seen how the weather and climate can affect farmer's spending on their land, such as one farmer who was renting in a valley whose entire season of crops was decimated because of torrential flooding.
Tell me more about some of the farmers behind these portraits.
I work with farmers such as Innocence Powell, who is broadening food access by growing food for BIPOC for free, or Kaija Xiao of Gentle Time Farm, a trans and queer cooperatively owned diversified vegetable farm growing culturally relevant East Asian crops for Asian community and diaspora in New York. And then there is Chase of Chaseholm Farm, who is third generation who talks about being aware of their privilege and trying to use it to hire fellow queer folks and host cool events like Dairy Drag.
“Farmers are often shown as white cis men, desolate and dirty like the FSA photographs, but I want to show how freaking beautiful it all is.”
What do you want people to take away from this beautiful body of work?
Farmers are often shown as white cis men, desolate and dirty like the FSA photographs, but I want to show how freaking beautiful it all is. If you live in a city, find a way to go to a farm. It sounds corny, but it’s so important to have the constant reminder because everything this capitalist world wants to throw at us is to disconnect us from the earth. Support black farmers, and try different cuts of meat.
Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with me!
To learn more about Charlotte Woolf’s work, visit her site. And if you’re in New York City, she’ll be showing the portrait of Kaija Xiao at Every Women Biennial from March 2-24 at LaMaMaGalleria!
Oh hey! You’re still reading this? If you have future topics, smart humans, or concepts you’d like to see featured, respond to this newsletter or drop me a line and say hey: Helen@HelenHollyman.com.