April 27, 2009 – You can see Rose’s head between the legs of the ewe on the right.
  The Dairy Farm series has touched a deep chord. I’m a bit surprised. People feel for Jon Clark and the loss of the farm, but I think the photos and story also speak to a deeper sadness and anger about the loss of individuality and security in a country that seems increasingly callous, and structured around bigness and money. Markets fall, and countless people loss their sense of safety, their jobs, their futures, sometimes their homes, and nobody seems especially upset about it.
  It is now routine and acceptable in America – I once wrote a novel about this – for tens of thousands of people to loss their jobs if profits fall. So when Jon Clark loses his farm to low milk prices and rising costs of operating, it is just another casuality to a culture that has come to value profit and loss more than the pride and power of work, love of life and the right of the individual to live his or her life. I think that is the chord Jon Clark has struck, and I see the power of photographs and images to tell the story better than words.
  These are good, honest, hard-working people. For 61 years, Jon Clark and his family have gotten up at 4:30 a.m. and worked through the day in brutal physical conditions to bring us fresh, clean, milk, and they never once thought of being rich or making millions on sub-prime markets. They were happy to live their lives and do their work. That has been ripped from them by a system that seems to have lost any sense of value and perspective about work, money or individuality. I will not forget these people or my time with them, and many of you have written how painful it must be to witness this, but the exact opposite is true. I can’t wait to get over there and be a witness to this. A privilege. Friday is the farm’s last day. I will be taking photos all week, or until they boot me out.