Farming during COVID
Farming and COVID
a story about feeding others during challenging times
I’ve had the chance to work with a quite a few farms during COVID to capture what their day to day looks like. These are some of the images from one vegetable farm, Glynwood Center in Cold Spring, NY during September 2020.
I worked with the Glynwood Center on several story telling projects including the farm team while I was there, and, because I love being on farms, I spent any free time outside of our project back with the farming team, getting photos of their daily work.
Telling the visual story of farming during COVID is a little tricky. Because the majority of the work takes place outside, and socially-distanced from other workers, many farms are comfortable with the decision to only wear masks when processing, packaging, and engaging with customers- the rest of the day might look any other day on the farm.
In order to get these images safely, I quarantined for 2 weeks before I arrived on site because I was arriving in NY from TX. Even after quarantine, I decided to wear my mask at all times to ensure that I was being as cautious as possible. I spent a full 7 days alongside the farm crew, between the project shoot days and my own time, rain and shine, and I captured the long days, the hard work, and some of their joy along the way. I carried two cameras, my D850 and Z7 each with different lenses, and I always had rain gear, a tripod, and an audio recorder so that I could capture video and audio clips that would help me tell the story of the farm and the farm crew.
Telling agricultural stories during COVID has been an incredible opportunity, because it is a much lower risk environment. I’ve found it is easy to get natural, joyful emotions out of subjects when they aren’t uptight and concerned for their health or safety. Entering respectfully into subject’s work spaces with interest and curiosity has meant I get a chance to connect with subjects, learn a lot, and get some incredible images to share how these industries have been impacted on a human level.
