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Midwest Agribusiness

The rural landscape of Northern Illinois has been an ongoing obsession of mine these last few months. Many people drive through the area while going from one place to another, and at 70 mph, the scenery can produce a mind-numbing boredom. I found, however, that slowing way down can reveal a detail or two, and maybe even prompt a thought or two.

Examples:
  • no matter the location or the hour, there is a dog barking far away, someplace
  • roads, and field rows, are straight, unless something forces them to be otherwise
  • despite generous rainfall, the row crop monoculture renders the area a desert with wildlife consigned to hedgerows and roadside ditches
  • structures are built and used when they serve a purpose; they are abandoned when they don't
  • farming is deadly serious business

The list is short and rather bleak, but affordable food is a wonderful thing.

So, with that little preamble out of the way, here are several recent photos.

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Maplewood Road, DeKalb County Illinois

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West Horizon, LaSalle County Illinois

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Silo Sunrise, DeKalb County Illinois​

The theme is in a nascent stage. These three photos are typical of recent efforts. They've worked to help define the theme, but I am not at all confident they work well to support it. All thoughts and opinions are very welcome, as usual.
 

John Angulat

pro member
Hi Tom,
I was thinking of you just yesterday as I watched a tugboat pushing a barge up the Hudson!

I absolutely love these images and I wouldn't dare try to pick a favorite!
The theme may be in its infancy, however you're off to a mighty good start.
There's clearly no need to worry if they offer adequate support - they are perfect!
Well done!
 
Hi,

These 3 pics are a very good basis for your work - Asher and Ken will be glad, this is another body of work.

For me, pic #2 is absolutely delicious. However, i think you shoud crop pic #3 by cutting a bit of sky above to get a more horizontal format which would give this image a strong graphical feeling. This woulf enhance paradoxal industrial aspect of this kind of "agribusiness".

Regards,

Cedric.
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Indeed I AM glad to see another set of images from a contiguous conceptual collection.

Tom, you've titled this set "Agribusiness" but, in fact, these images depict an aspect of farming that's far from its business end. They depict the romance and loneliness of working the land for your sustenance. Man-made structures breaking the monotonous Illinois landscape like claim flags in a land rush.

If you sincerely want to portray "agribusiness" you'll need to mostly avoid such romantic images and get much, much closer to the people. Of course the whole American farming scene has been photo-essayed to death for over 100 years, to the point where it will be very hard to find an angle that's not howlingly clichė. But as a personal project it's as worthy as any other and might lead you to something else, as projects often do.

Some comments on your images. It looks like you're groping for a style of framing or point of view. These types of middle-of-nowhere scenes are excellent settings to make such decisions because nothing's moving, there are few individual subjects, and experimenting with possibilities shows very obvious results.

Each of these images is ok but they share little in terms of point of view. They are each, however, framed too tightly in my opinion. I'm guessing you used a zoom lens and, becoming a bit seduced at the last moment by the "subjects", decided to turn that zoom ring just a smidge more tightly. Each of these scenes would have greatly benefitted by a wider framing to better articulate the real subject; the middle-of-nowhereness of these farms. Also, don't discount moving the camera vertically to nudge the horizon. If you have a chance to see some renowned large-format landscape photographers work such scenes you may often see them placing their cameras quite high and actually using a portable stair stool to reach it. Such higher points of view can add that secret sauce of image value that the common stand-and-shooter misses completely.

Of the three images the first has the real photographic chops. The gentle curve of the dirt road leading to the buildings, the utility line suggesting the thin connectedness to the rest of the world.

If you're going to make a habit of shooting these scenes <g> you should consider investing in a graduated neutral density filter set to help tone-down hot skies (#2) in better balance with the land. Yes this can be accomplished with careful bracketing but in these flatlander scenes it's just easier to use an nd grad, and the results generally look much, much better.

I hope you take my comments in the positive, constructive spirit in which they're offered. I cheer you onward, Tom!
 
John and Cedric,

Thank you both for your kind words! All three scenes were taken in early morning light of one sort or another. All too often I'll have a particular goal in mind as I drive to a destination, only to find unusual light, unusual clouds, or a combination of the two as the night gives way to day. Oddly enough, there never seems to be a subject equal to the setting during these moment. The result is often a comical scramble to find something that will do. An example - http://www.pbase.com/salty_one/image/124141310 (this doesn't quite fit the post, so I hope no one minds the link in this instance).

Ken,

As usual, you're on the money. The theme is indeed ill-chosen for the photos. The idyllic farm scenes belie the serious motivations that exist one light scratch below the surface, and I became perhaps a bit too caught up in this aspect. Your objective point of view will result in an effort to either find photos that fit the stated theme, or to find a better theme to fit the photos. I suspect I'll go with the latter choice.

It's interesting you should mention shooting from a slightly higher vantage point. A couple months ago I bought a pick up truck to provide clearance to drive over rutted dirt and gravel roads and also to photograph from the bed of the truck. I learned quickly that it doesn't take much breeze at all to cause motion blur.

Living in flat land should make using grads fairly easy, but I've never owned one. Always figured there are too many plates spinning already, but will give this possibility some further thought.
 

John Angulat

pro member
Some thoughts on your project

Hi Tom,

As always, Ken's insight sparks thought. May he never give up on us!
In his reply he said:
"If you sincerely want to portray "agribusiness" you'll need to mostly avoid such romantic images and get much, much closer to the people"

I got to thinking about "agribusiness" here in the U.S. It's a tough life in the best of times.
Many fail after so much hard work.
Would you consider focusing on the darker side?

I'm seeing images of:

- the empty bedrooms of sons and daughters, gone to seek a better life elsewhere
- piles of unpaid invoices
- auctions of everything a farmer owns, gone to the highest bidder
- foreclosure notices nailed to front doors
- nature's instant destruction of a season's hard work

Thoughts???
 

Ken Tanaka

pro member
Tom:
David Plowden's work comes to mind as a reference point for excellently crafted, albeit sentimental, images of rural America and kindred subjects. His books are wonderful.

Of course Art Sinsabaugh mastered getting to the point with the Midwestern farm landscapes. You think wind bothered you with a little dslr? Haw. Try it with a banquet camera! Honestly, I just don't know how he did some of these so well, although most of the negatives and prints are actually tiny. Still, they're absolutely razor sharp when viewed in-person.

John's suggestions for scenes are good conceptual starter stock for showing farming failure, which is certainly prominent in the family production segment of the industry. There are some equally prominent success scenes possible, too, at both the family business and corporate business levels. But as I noted earlier, creating images that won't immediately have a narcotic effect on viewers might be challenging...but that's half the fun, eh.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Tom, Ken and John,

I'm utterly satisfied with more of the road pictures as gradually they talk of what was is and might be. Just the drums be vertical! The views from the road are meaningful and and also picturesque in a way to invoke the quant yet use forms that are not, each able to give rise to stories of the folk therein.

Yes, one can do more, but who says it should be more on pain and suffering? Any good economy must have older forms being replaced, just as strong bone requires renewal to allow us to keep running strong!

It's no longer the images of the 1930's and 1950's that are needed today. I admit that one studies the greats to be inspired and then we might even try to follow in their footsteps. Those who admire Ansel Adams are known lug old-fashioned film cameras, (thank goodness, not so often glass plates), to the National parks, bathe in the mystique and thrill in being there to comprehend and extend the master's genre, but why stop there? With the great American photographic subjects, we should look to what was done and even engage in those worlds but then we need to write about our own take on things through the lens! So what might that include?

With the farm societies in the Mid Western United States, there are so many new problems. The role of Ethanol business, taking away farmland from foodstuffs and putting the prices of some food staples out of reach of poor countries, as corn, and hence other products, get linked to energy prices. How does this impact the small farmer? How does it alter one's inner sense of moral high ground in moving from a food producer to a commodity whore? Or am I too harsh and no one really feels any different!

Then, there's the demand for green. What changes in relationships might this cause. Are there bank loans for new equipment needed? Contrary to popular belief, the banking crisis did not impact banks throughout the country. Small rural town banks have weathered the storm as their loans were to folk they went to school with. they know how many chickens and head of cattle the guys have. There are few guesses and less failures!

Still, can the small farms afford the changes or are they best set up to compete to supply demands the shelves of the discerning ever green-seeking American consumer. What does it mean when machine killing of livestock by drowning and electrocution or caged egg production are banned by more and more supermarkets. Is the small family producer better equipped to adapt processes to meet the new needs?

How are the loan programs and subsidies working? What's the reality of climate change?

Would you find old and rusting farm gear on a family farm or modern Japanese Honda tractors replacing the green John Deere's granpa favored.

How are the schools and churches thriving?

I do not know the answers, but perhaps some aspect of what I have pointed to might resonate and provide a core around which to photograph a story of where things are and how they differ from the past.

In the meanwhile, I'll delight in more of tom's pristine, views from the road (even of partly decayed) farm structures. All we see are placed as if we are passing cottages and farmsteads in outside some village in England, except we see in their stead the industry of the place the feeds the belly of the planet. The views are "industrio-quaint" as seen without people and from where one would just pass by. What we observe is both brand & politics-neutral, allowing us, each on our own, to provide the background information to make their story complete!

I'd keep shooting and then when you have 50 or a hundred pictures, sort for unity!

Asher
 
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Ruben Alfu

New member
Hi Tom,

This gems are a real pleasure to see, specially No2. That was my first reaction to these photos. The posts above provide a very interesting and educational reading. Great thread so far.
 
Ruben,

Thank you for your thoughts! You're right about the interesting feedback provided thus far. This is a remarkable place, isn't it?

John,

The "dark side" offers some possibilities and they set the old noodle to spinning. I can think of some involving livestock, but being a happy carnivore, I wouldn't care to cover them. Others, such as loss of the family farm and home due to evolving economies of scale, are certainly doable. It can be a sad story, however.

123476532.jpg

The little Christmas icicle decorations festooning the front of this abandoned farm house almost broke my heart. How many generations of kids had their annual height recorded in pencil at some special place on a kitchen wall?

I agree wholeheartedly with your observations regarding Ken's contribution to this, and other posts.

Ken,

I've found the work of David Plowden constantly haunts me as I frame rural scenes through the viewfinder. His wonderful "Vanishing Point" has an easy to reach placement in my insomniac bookshelf. Sinsabaugh's monstrously large banquet camera certainly should temper any whining about too much wind, especially with our ability to adjust ISO settings on the fly, and etc.

T.O.P. recently recommended "Thoughts on Landscape" by Frank Gohlke (enjoyed your recent note there, by the way). Some of Gohlke's thoughts in the last few chapters of the book defined and clarified aspects of my very humble recent endeavors.

Asher,

You have offered an incredibly rich and deep list of options and ideas. Thank you, as always; you are a veritable gold mine! I am tempted to comment on all of them, but they will, for the moment, serve as subject filters. This is very much appreciated, as always.

Tom
 
Thank you for looking and commenting, Alain.

I like that one too. It was taken shortly after dawn after an all night rain. Direct sunlight was fleeting as it found its way through very occasional openings in the overcast.

Weather front passages occurring near dawn or dusk seem to more than double the potential for dramatic lighting potential in my limited experience. Have you found this to be true for you as well?

Tom
 

Alain Briot

pro member
Thank you for looking and commenting, Alain.

I like that one too. It was taken shortly after dawn after an all night rain. Direct sunlight was fleeting as it found its way through very occasional openings in the overcast.

Weather front passages occurring near dawn or dusk seem to more than double the potential for dramatic lighting potential in my limited experience. Have you found this to be true for you as well?

Tom

I have found that bad weather = good photographs. Just 2 weeks ago we experienced a freak May snowstorm at Mt Valley, Utah. We were able to capture "winter" scenes at 3pm then had a bright color sunset because the snow had melted by then.

T'was a g'day for variety!
 
Weather has recently been tame and typical of fair weather in late spring/early summer. Nothing dramatic, in other words.

Some years ago, I discovered light from directly overhead (around noon) can bring out the feather detail of large birds such as egrets and herons - side lit from above, basically. This also seems to be the case with an old clay tile silo found yesterday along a dirt road in the middle of nowhere.

124797005.jpg

I suspect the extra expense and effort to create the tile pattern was an indication to neighbors that the farm was doing well at the time of its construction. The location is remote, however, so the decoration was probably admired only by the locals. The vertical element at the right hand side may have housed an internal grain elevator.

124834442.jpg

There's no evidence of recent activity, so the structures are now used only for implement storage, if at all.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief

124834442.jpg

Tom,

I do like the shadows you have caught and the shapes here. What about the "film" you have used. This was also a major consideration in film use and still is. So here, for example, I'd consider using the curves function in photoshop to increase contrast and give the richer colors and pop of Velvia. But then the image could also thrive living in B&W.

I'm thinking of Ken's ideas on sets of 10, so for you, this might allow for groupings that otherwise would not work in just one kind of presentation such as "out of the camera color".

Asher
 
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