Please enter your email and website or LinkedIn to receive more information about our free and paid accounts.
Please enter your email address below and we’ll send you instructions on how to change your password.
When Denver-based Doug Gritzmacher was growing up, his father often tried to recreate the childhood experience of visiting his grandparent’s farm in rural Wisconsin. Though they couldn’t raise cattle or tend to crops, Doug’s father worked on all the yards of all the suburban houses they lived in, all while wearing ranching boots and a cowboy hat. While the sight of his father in farming attire brought joy to a young Doug, the experience ingrained an understanding of the necessary grit it takes to work in agriculture. As an adult, Doug carries this sentiment through his photographic work, in a project that highlights the dusty days spent on a hay-baling farm in the mountains of Colorado.
I have my own cherished memories of riding in the tractor with him in the backyard and, well, not-so-cherished memories of having to help pick rocks—lots of rocks—out of the dirt.
Earlier this year, Doug moved to Salida, Colo. — a small town in the mountains outside Denver— where he became friendly with Aly and Orlin Camerlo, who own a hay farm in the neighboring town of Howard. Drawn to the experiences his father spoke of at Doug’s great-grandparent’s family farm, he was eager to photograph their process and asked if he could tag along during their next bale cutting.
I’m always on the lookout for interesting personal projects that showcase my vision and approach to my work so this immediately piqued my interest.
The Howard Creek Farm is a part of a small community nestled in a narrow valley that sits along the Arkansas River. Doug felt the location fit with his photographic style, as he approached the project with the intent to capture the story while creating a portrait of the unique environment. The farming town sits at 7,000 feet and is surrounded by the towering Rocky Mountains, which Doug felt differed from the typical pastured farm setting.
Both approaches tie into my desire to put viewers in the world of my subjects and make them feel like they are in the middle of the action. I especially like to drop viewers into unique or unusual settings.
While Doug had confirmed his visit with his contact at the farm, the other two subjects didn’t know about his project before the day of shooting. Though the farmers permitted him to photograph them at work, the subjects were confused why Doug was interested in capturing people baling hay, as this is just a routine part of their lives.
They were all for letting me do my thing and I asked them to quickly give me an overview of the process so I could anticipate the flow of action and then left them alone to do their work.
To capture the experience authentically, Doug did his best to stay out of the way of the hard workers. He balanced portraits of the subjects with landscape imagery that provided context to the unique setting, doing his best to ready himself for the down moments between the baling — like refueling the tractor — so he could quickly capture the imagery he envisioned.
My work is often about people with a job to do, which means they can’t afford to be distracted from their work. I’ve become skilled at respecting my subjects’ priorities while still working hard to get what I need.
The environmental conditions of Howard in the hot summer made it challenging for Doug to stabilize the intense mountain light. He did his best to work with the direction of the sun, using a combination of supplementary lighting, HDR technology, and lots of retouching in post-production.
I wanted to show you can still capture beautiful images under these conditions, but I lucked out with great cloud structure that day and used it to my advantage to break up the sky to add drama and scale.
I think this project helped me embrace the challenge of working with the midday summer light in the mountains. Baling hay is hard, hot, and dirty and the rough light helps my viewers feel that.
Maintaining authenticity during this project directed all of Doug’s choices, and he chose to include the sweat and dirt that was visible on the subject’s clothes and faces. He staged several shots up-close in the process of cutting, with the hay flying in all directions, which added texture and movement to the environmental images.
Authenticity is a big part of my approach, which meant fully embracing the grit, dirt, and sweat that was inherent in the hard work of baling hay.
Doug appreciated the subject’s reactions to his work and felt the farmers were surprised to see their job portrayed from an artistic perspective. This project allowed him to capture these laborers, who are so entrenched in the grit of their work that it is hard for them to see the beauty in it without an outsider’s eye.
When I showed them the images it was a big surprise, especially when they got to see themselves from a professional’s perspective. Most of all, they’re images they’ll have to show family and friends for years to come.
While Doug has now returned to his great-grandparent’s rural roots, he’s not about to abandon photography to learn the lay of the land. However, it’s clear that his family’s history lives on through his drive and determination, and pushes him to take on projects that speak to the important work one can do with their own two hands.
Photographer: Doug Gritzmacher