Jon Clark’s Dairy Farm

  April 27, 2009 –  From the first, this blog has been a magic window for me, an expression of my life, my writing, my art, my experiences with change, growth, fear,confusion and misdirection. And direction, too.
  It has been one of the seminal creative experiences of my life, fusing writing with photography and inspiring me to see, journal, understand and capture the images of my mind, farm, work, life and love. A community has formed around this blog, and I take in their interest and support every day, even if I can’t always respond to it.
   The photos of Jon Clark’s Dairy Farm are a landmark for me, in terms of my own sense of the world, and certainly in terms of response. I have never touched a deeper chord, surely not with my photos. These photos generate hundreds of e-mails each day.
  For the record, Jon and his family do not want money, and are not seeking any. The cows are all going to dairy farms, in New York and Pennsylvania. The family has decided it is time. There are only so many 14 hour days in anybody’s life, and theirs are almost over. Milk prices and hard times are certainly a factor.
  Jon is very emotional about the farm’s closing, and angry at a system that is crushing so many farmers while generating so much concern, wealth and support for bankers and corporations.
  I am grateful to his family. Many people have asked me if it is difficult for me to be in the Clark barn every night. No, not for me. It is a meditation, an opportunity, an education and a creative challenge. The cows know me now, and so does the family, so every afternoon I pull in, haul out my tripods and lenses, and follow the light around the dairy barn. There is no such thing as an easy photo in hospice work, and no easy photo in a barn either.
   I’ve never seen people work so hard so willingly and lovingly. What I’m witnessing and trying to record is not the loss of a job, but the loss of a way of life.
  American, once the birthplace of good work, has become the home of the disposable individual, and the throwaway worker. It is no longer even controversial for a company whose profits dip to toss out thousands of loyal and competent workers, even in late middle age. Work, once a mainstream of security and pride, has become for many a terror, and an exercise in cruelty and corporate and political callousness.
   Corporations are no longer expected to take any responsibility for their workers, and brutality in the name of profitability and efficiency has become socially and politically acceptable.
  Government and politicians don’t seem to mind a bit, and markets reward brutal corporations with higher stock prices. It’s the best way to get your stock price up.
  Farmers are in a different sphere, romantic, individualistic, a storied part of American lore. People hate to see them to under.
  But I believe this story and these photos strike so deep a chord because they speak to the new reality for most, if not all, of us. We are Jon Clark, or could be at any time. We not only feel the loss of his farm, an American symbol, but of his choice and dignity.
 So I will be there every night this week, and it is not painful for me. It is nothing but a joy. And I can’t imagine a better purpose for a website.