“Springside Barn at Dawn, Winter 2014”

I began the Yankee Farmlands project in 2014 during the summer, when things are really cooking on Connecticut’s agricultural landscapes.  Crops of all kinds are rising up from the soil, the pastures are dotted with all manner of livestock and wildflowers sway in the breeze at the farm’s edge.  With autumn came the harvest, which brings a flurry of activity and a brilliant aesthetic all its own.  But when December arrived, the drab landscapes and barren, dormant farmlands had me doubting the feasibility of shooting for Yankee Farmlands over the winter.

When I rose on this particular morning, I was skeptical but had resolved to head out to the farmlands of Durham before dawn and cover as much ground as possible in search of anything that might strike my eye.  Just as the sun began to rise, I turned a corner and looked across a shadowy pasture to see the full breadth of a distant, wooded hill glowing brilliantly over the otherwise monotone landscape.  I immediately pulled over and leapt from my truck.  That vista, at what I eventually learned was Springside Farm, became Yankee Farmlands № 16.

But after I committed that view to a few exposures, I took notice of the barn beside the pasture.  The sun still hadn’t risen high enough to strike the walls, but a bit of indirect light was delicately fending away twilight shadows.  Indeed, the soft contrast and the compositional simplicity of “Springside Barn at Dawn, Winter 2014” resonated with my sensibilities.  Why didn’t it become № 16 instead?  Well, Yankee Farmlands was really supposed to be about the broader agricultural landscape and this photograph was an intimate “portrait” of a time-worn barn; it that sense, it diverged from my central theme.  But when it came time to put together the Late Harvest collection, I knew this piece deserved a spot.