Where Milk, Hope, and Uncertainty Meet for Bloomberg Businessweek
Photographing John on his dairy farm in Buffalo County was one of those assignments that reminds me why I love this work.
While the national conversation about immigration feels loud and chaotic, life on the farm moves at its own steady rhythm, and I spent the morning trying to capture that balance. John walked me through the barns and introduced me to the workers from Mexico who keep the operation running, many of whom gather in a small kitchenette each week for English lessons. The mix of pride, uncertainty, routine, and resilience hung in the air as much as the warm humidity from the milking parlor.
Out in the fields, John talked about his hopes that common sense will outweigh rhetoric, that his workers will be allowed to stay, and that the farm will continue to function as it has for years. My goal was simple: make photographs that show the human side of an issue so often discussed in the abstract and the quiet strength of a place that relies on people the country doesn’t always see.
