For the past year, Elliot Ross has been photographing the world of farmer Jim Mertens. Inspired by the empathetic imagery of Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans for the Farm Security Administration, Ross created an essay that examines the relationship between the farmer and the land, giving both characters equal focus in “The Reckoning Days.” The grains of wheat and the cracked palms of laborers are given the same attention, depicted in a mesmerizing palette of blues and yellows. “Society is generally removed from the processes in which bread and hundreds of other products reach our baskets,” Ross said. "We must protect, nurture, and celebrate the salt of the earth.”
Faith, Family, and the American Farmer
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The second day of harvest is cut short by a supercell blowing in from the West. Colton prays that the rain will stray to the South as his wife Lauren looks on and their niece Carlee twirls in her own rain dance. #
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Cole inspects a grain of wheat for moisture content before the start of harvest. Because of the wet spring and summer, wheat too wet to cut becomes an increasingly stressful problem as July progresses. #
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Women often times are the bedrock of farming families, offering support and comfort through the long hours and intense stress while still performing their daily tasks. #
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Spring brought floods throughout the plains of northeastern Colorado. The results were dichotomous; on one hand they threatened homes and flooded low lying fields but at the same time nurtured the best crop of wheat in living memory. #
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Taking a morning off from harvest, three farmers in their Sunday’s best stand in the threshold of the barn for a sermon at Cowboy Church in New Raymer, Colorado. #
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