I met Graham and Allison at Sparrows Nest Organics (a small farm about an hour outside of Edmonton) about a year ago when my girlfriend did a story on them for Vue Weekly. Click here to read it. When I toured around the land and met them, it was surreal. Everything from the farming practices, the pre-war era equipment they used, their location on the top of a hill to their openness and personalities was too perfect. I took some snaps and one of the photos is published in the article. I dawned on me that their farm is the perfect place for a documentary project. So, I sent them an email and asked. They seemed really open to some free labour in exchange for my annoying presence on their farm for approximately 50 days.
The long and short is that I'm doing a 10-month long photo documentary on them and their farm. The purpose is to visually explore the lives and struggles of independent farmers who refuse to "fit in" to mainstream practices; to portray the techniques, practices, customs and values associated with community-focused farming; and to display the potential shift from large-scale farming to a more sustainable, ecologically sensitive mode of production.
I've applied for a grant through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts to help offset the costs of this. My budget was just over $6000 for all the film, paper, chemicals and transportation costs. If I don't get this grant it will seriously screw me pretty hard. It will mean a lot of hitchhiking to get there, fewer shots and a pretty half-assed end product.
The point of this blog is to chronologically document the project in it's entirety. I'm pretty stoked to have this chance and hopefully it just doesn't end up being some lameass blog that floats around the internet aimlessly.
