| For the week of December 8, 2008 |
Where Have All the Good People Gone? |
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“Where have all the good people gone?”
That may be a question we all ask from time to time, but New York City photographer Paul Mobley found the answer among the farm and ranch families of this nation.
About four years ago, Mobley, who had been shooting photos professionally for 15 years, found himself struggling to rekindle the creative energy and sense of purpose that had driven him throughout his career.
Mobley decided that a lazy summer of sunsets on the lake near his family’s cabin in Glen Arbor, Mich., might provide a remedy. While there, he visited with farmers at the local farmers market and, in one of those moments of sudden unmistakable realization, it occurred to Mobley that the weathered faces of the farmers he saw were the salt of the earth. In that moment, he knew he wanted to photograph those faces.
By the end of that summer, Mobley had taken portraits of more than 20 farmers in and around Glen Arbor. He only then began to realize the importance of his discovery. That experience took him on an odyssey over the next three years. He traveled more than 100,000 miles through 35 states photographing around 300 farmers and ranchers.
The New York City photographer knew from the beginning that he was stepping into an entirely new way of working. Gone from his previous years of shooting were the large crews and tons of expensive equipment. He began traveling light and without an assistant. Mobley learned to keep the camera in his bag until he got to know the farm and ranch families he wanted to photograph.
By the time he brought his camera out, he was already good friends with the people whose faces now grace the 275 pages of a beautiful book of photographic excellence called American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country. Mobley’s photographs present a truth that owes itself to the directness and simplicity of every encounter he had during the production of the book. The real human connections and quiet initiations of friendship he developed with farmers unlocked the potential for what the photographs could be. In the process, Mobley’s own spirits were lifted.
Mobley’s book is a portrait collection of modern American farmers and ranchers. It contains not only the photographs, but also farmers’ memories in their own words presenting a glimpse into the hardships and joys of an age-old way of life. Mobley found the true face of American farming and captured through his camera the simplicity, contentment, and decency that is so often missing in other walks of life.
Speaking of his experience, Mobley says, “I embarked on this project as a photographer in search of artistic evolution, and I found it. But the exquisite and unexpected discovery was of a kinder and gentler world and way of life than any I’d known before.”
Where have all the good people gone?
Paul Mobley knows very well where they are and he found them. In his words, “Like so many of us, I doubted the existence of this kind of goodness in the world. Drive up to any farmhouse in this country. You’ll find them. They’re there.”
American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country can be ordered this holiday season at http://welcomebooks.com/americanfarmer/. It is also available through www.Amazon.com, and in many bookstores.
Jerry Harke is director of issues management for the American Farm Bureau Federation.