America’s Heartland: 150 Portraits of American Farmers

For most of us, life in the 21st century involves a great deal of distance and detachment; emails and text messages have replaced face-to-face conversations, food reaches our homes bagged and boxed as a processed product, and long drives to suburban shopping centers have replaced leisurely walks to the corner store. As a way of life, it may be efficient, but it’s far from what most people would call “authentic.” An aesthetic equivalent also occurs in photography, of course, where technology has made it effortless to transform real scenes and subjects into what are, in effect, extremely convincing fictionalizations.

As a commercial-photography veteran with clients like American Express, Sony, Ford, Compaq, Max Factor and Microsoft, Paul Mobley knows the challenges of seeking substance and authenticity in a culture (and business) that has developed a taste for superficial and simulated perfection. Rather than writing off this frustration as a fact of life, however, Mobley has used it to inspire a personal project: a series of raw, honest portraits that are now collected in his first book, American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country (Welcome Books, 2008).

“This book began almost four years ago in a small coffee shop in northern Michigan,” writes Mobley in his afterword. “I’d been shooting professionally for 15 years almost non-stop and for the first time I was struggling to find the creative energy and sense of purpose that had faithfully fueled me throughout my career.” He hoped that a rural summer spent talking about mostly nothing with the local farmers (“solving the world’s problems over a cup of coffee,” he says) would prove a restorative solution. “One morning,” he recalls, “I remember looking across the table at this line of weathered, salt-of-the-earth faces, and I just knew, in that moment, that I wanted to photograph them.”

Mobley asked one of the farmers if he could stop by the farm later that day to take his picture. It was a life-altering experience. Says Mobley, “I can still remember looking through the camera and thinking, ‘This is the most pure, honest photograph I’ve ever done.’ ” By the end of the summer, he had photographed about two-dozen farmers in the area and created portraits that ignited a spark in him and eventually took him across the country to photograph over 300 farmers in 35 states. Photographing only one portrait each trip, his hectic urban life gradually slipped away, as fading cell phone signals were replaced by heartfelt welcomes, a seat at the family supper table and stories about life—a different kind of life.

“I knew right away that I was stepping into a whole new way of working. After years of shooting with large crews and tons of expensive equipment, I traveled as lightly as possible from state to state, farm to farm, most often without an assistant or even a tripod,” he notes. His mental approach to imagemaking also changed, becoming less centered on the camera and more focused on the subject. “I’d arrive at each farm and spend as much time as possible getting to know the farmer and his family, before even taking my camera out of the car. Preproduction was no longer about setting up lights and styling the subject; it was about studying the constellation of wrinkles on each farmer’s face, the way his eye lit up every time his granddaughter’s name was mentioned, and how his jaw tightened when he recalled the loss of a calf that had to be pulled out the night before. By the time I picked up the camera, in many ways the picture had already been taken.”

Working with the subjects of American Farmer not only altered Mobley’s approach to portraiture, it changed his outlook on life. “Entering into this rural culture, this family of farmers, revived my own sense of spirit and optimism. Like so many of us, I doubted the existence of this kind of goodness in the world. You look at the ways we treat—or mistreat—one another, and it’s gotten so out of hand. You want something you can believe in. You ask yourself, ‘Where have all the good people gone?’ Well, I can tell you. Drive up to any farmhouse in this country and you’ll find them.”
Mobley’s affection for his subjects pours forth in this collection of 150 portraits—images that are direct and simple, yet delicately lit and richly textured. Beyond the grace of their technical execution, they are images that speak of authenticity; a human connection and a connection with the earth. Looking at each face, you get the sense that you are stealing a glance into the eyes of someone who has walked their own path and willingly taken on elemental challenges that actually shame the trivial annoyances of urban life.

Substantiating these portraits are insightful interviews with the farmers and ranchers, which were conducted and edited for the book by Katrina Fried. Today, as food and fuel prices soar, these offer thoughtful insights into a frequently marginalized sector of the global economy and the lives of the individuals who form its core. As Willard Scott notes in the book’s preface, “Farmers and ranchers are the backbone of our country, indispensable providers of the food, and now energy as well, that has enabled the United States to remain stable and strong throughout history.” Acclaimed singer-songwriter and rancher Michael Martin Murphey seconds this in his introduction, writing, “Farmers and ranchers are the single most important contributors to the future survival of the human race and the living planet Earth.”

Whether or not the book achieves commercial success (which it seems likely to do, given the buzz preceding its release), Mobley says that creating the 30,000 images shot for the project was, above all, a labor of love. “If it only sells one copy, I’ve already been given the gift,” says Mobley. Returning to the world of commercial photography, he finds that he is now more committed to remaining true to his vision and less swayed by the constant feedback he receives at many big jobs. He also finds that he is more patient and kind, aspiring in his everyday life to treat people as graciously as the farmers treated him.

“As people become more aware of the book and see the images, I also hope it will afford me more opportunity to do what I do,” he says. This is already starting to be the case. Recognizing the value of Mobley’s own creative aesthetic, the director of a recent advertising campaign declined to provide layouts. Mobley laughs that, at first, he thought the job was canceled. The director clarified, however, that the company simply knew and liked his work; he told Mobley the parameters and let him fill the page according to his own sensibility.

To learn more about American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country, visit the publisher’s website: www.welcomebooks.com/americanfarmer. See Mobley’s commercial and personal portraiture at www.paulmobleystudio.com.

Michelle Perkins is a professional writer, designer and image retoucher. She has written for PC Photo and is the author of Beginner’s Guide to Adobe Photoshop, The Practical Guide to Digital Imaging, Color Correction and Enhancement with Adobe Photoshop, and her latest book, Professional Portrait Lighting: Techniques and Images from Master Photographers (all from Amherst Media).