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We eat what we were

The stories of people raising, harvesting, cooking and serving food cannot help but speak to core values and being. There is something about farming that makes people want to tell their family stories, maybe becasue so many of us have at least some farming in our families’ pasts — after all, in many places growingContinue reading “We eat what we were”

Ted Pullen

I met Ted Pullen almost three decades ago, when we were both closer the the beginning o our careers than we were to the ends. That’s changed for both of us, now sliding down the backside of our chosen work. What hasn’t changed is that Ted and I still love to tell and hear storiesContinue reading “Ted Pullen”

Around and around

If this is your first time to Cultivating Justice: Welcome! This project is the happy collision of decades work done by Will Atwater and Laura Lawson — who have worked with community agriculture, land ownership, justice issues and such for a long time – with the photos I’ve made with Black farm families in theContinue reading “Around and around”

Past, present, future.

None of us work in a vacuum. There’s a history behind every picture, everyoral story, every recording, every single utterance we make. For a lot of thework I did in the Bootheel of Missouri, I didn’t quite understand that context. I felt like I was the only person paying attention. Sometimes that feeling scared me.Continue reading “Past, present, future.”

Arlean and Willie Peat

The first time I met Arlean and Willie Peat it was because their neighbor Ted Pullen introduced me. I don’t think they would have said anything to me had I showed up alone. As it was, all I got was a sideways look and a “Don’t make no never-mind,” from Arlean when I asked ifContinue reading “Arlean and Willie Peat”

Why photography?

In a world of overwhelming data, powerful statistical tools, wonderous data visualization and an army of people generating words to precisely dissect any issue, why would anyone mess around with something as ambiguous and non-literal as a still photograph? The answer is in the question. Some photographs – the ones we remember – give usContinue reading “Why photography?”

Finding a Home

Three decades ago, I came to Columbia Missouri to go to the University of Missouri School of Journalism. It was a time of dramatic and unsettling changes. My wife and I had an toddler son at home, with a daughter on the way. The farms around me didn’t look at all like those I wasContinue reading “Finding a Home”