Working Land refers to two facets of rural landscape: the idea of working the land as a vocation and as a description of productive ground. My family tree includes immigrant ancestors who made a living from working the soil and some of their descendants who carry on this work to the present day. That personal connection to working land inspired the project.
a few ponds
Rocky's Bait, January 17,2016: I sat with Rocky and Kathy at their kitchen table to map of some of the more than 100 ponds they lease for bait production. He knows the contours of their shorelines and their submerged topography as well as any farmer knows the dry land. He drew these ponds’ shapes from memory, his pencil tracing mental images formed over his many years of working these waters.