I drive with my mother away from the city, away from industry, and strip malls far out into the country. We pass seas of fields, abandon houses, and old farmsteads. We are on our way to document one of the oldest round barns that is one of a few left in the state. As we drive we pass one farmstead that is particularly intriguing with its dinosaur of a red prairie style barn and white farmhouse off to one side.
“Oh we have to go back.” I say to her as she slows the car down and prepares to make a U-turn. She knows the routine. We dust up the dirt driveway and we meet up with a farmer and his son at the front of their massive barn.
“I am working on a project documenting barns and farmsteads from around Minnesota. May I take a picture of your barn?” I ask.
“Sure.” The farmer says dusty from moving some hay. He smiles politely with pride that his life is being acknowledged in some way.
My mom does what she does best and starts making talk with the two men about my project as I step 50 feet back to get a wide-angle shot of the barn.
I walk back over to them as I hear my mom say that we are on our way to Long Prairie to document the massive wooden round barn that everyone and their neighbor has told me about since I have began this project.
The farmer replies “Oh, dat der one on de edge of town.” He utters with one of the richest Minnesotan accents I have ever heard. “Dat just went down. Shame really.” He pauses. “People talked about fixing it up but no money went dat way.”
“Yah,” his son chimes, “just a month or two ago.”
We thank the two men for their time and get back into the car. Kind of distraught I realize then how pertinent this project was in documenting this history before it is gone.
March 2008:
I have since with the help of two McKeown grants been able to travel around and document historic rural architecture and farmland that are still in use and some locals that are on their way out. Some of the states and provinces I have had the chance to do photographic research in are Minnesota, Michigan, Maine, Vermont, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.
Korla, your interests are very noble, I look forward to see what you make of it. It’s inspiring to me that you are documenting how beautiful we once were. Great story!
Jose
By: Jose Ambriz on March 24, 2008
at 7:57 pm