Chasing Chiles: 2/17/08

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Portraits of Chile Farmers

I wanted to share some of these photos with you. These portraits are of survey participants, with each I have included their first name, age, acreage farmed and crops that they grow. I normally feel that pointing a camera in someone's face is very intrusive, but after talking with each participant on how they manage their crop, and of their concerns for their livelihoods, I asked for their photo to pair with their survey data. I'm thrilled with the results as I think each photo makes the data less abstract, giving it a very real, human connection. I think this subset of participants is fairly reflective of the entire group. Mostly men 50 and over planting small acreages to beans, maize and chile. A few plant cash crops, which in this region is garlic or tomatoes.