Documenting a season on a modern family farm
In the 21st century very few people have a concept of where their food comes from and the hard work it takes to produce it. I’m excited to be photographing the Ristad family farm in Northern Minnesota during the entire 2022 growing season. Today the farm is run by Jim Ristad and his son Eric. Over several generations the farm has grown bigger and they now use much larger tractors and combines that are GPS guided. But what’s stayed the same is hard working people working long hours in a gamble with nature every year to grow our food.
Jim Ristad and I hatched this idea last winter when Nazan and I were staying in their cabin on the farm. This is going to be a full sized photography book, much like my Ice Age Trail book. I’m excited to be producing this book for the Ristad family and their friends. Obviously this will become a family heirloom, but it will be much more. I am documenting what farming is like in Kittson County in 2022. It will be part family album, part documentary on modern farming, and in time it will become a historical book. The best way to record history is to document it today.
I grew up on the Gillie farm only 4 miles away from the Ristads. They are my cousins. We both are descendants of George and Inga Foss. The two Foss daughters married farmers and lived most of the lives on the nearby farms of George Gillie and Ferdie Ristad. Helga Gillie was my grandmother, and Florence Ristad was Jim’s mother. Florence and Ferdie Ristad were also my Godparents.
Photographing everyday life
I inherited my Grandmother Helga’s collection of family photos. Naturally as a photojournalist, I went through Helga’s boxes of photos looking for photos of my grandparents farming. There wasn’t a single image of my Grandpa George on a tractor or Helga working in her large garden. Things they spent their whole lives doing. It’s a shame we generally only save photographs of things like vacations and weddings. We don’t think to take photos of the things we do every day. My goal with this book is to document every day life on the Ristad farm.
The woods on the Ristad farm
The Ristads own a scenic wooded area adjacent to the farmyard that is the family’s playground where they hunt and enjoy the solitude of nature. These woods have always been important to the family so we are including the wildlife and scenery in the book. They have a nice cabin in these woods which I’m happy to call my home base while photographing the farm. I’m enjoying wandering around in the morning capturing the seasons of nature as well as the day to day operations of the farm.
I’ve been traveling back and forth between Kittson County and my home in Madison, Wisconsin since the beginning of the planting season. This is one of the biggest projects I’ve ever undertaken. It is a pleasure being back photographing farming in Northwest Minnesota where I grew up. Thank you Jim, Julie, Eric, and Jenny for inviting me!
