Photographer shares stories that honor Skagit Valley farms
By Luisa Loi
La Conner Community News
For six years, a local photographer stood alongside farmers and farmworkers in the fields, documenting the lives of the people behind the food that makes the Skagit Valley special.
On Friday, the countless hours that Craig J. Barber spent observing their work will culminate with an exhibit at the Skagit County Historical Museum, where he will present his photo collection and book, both titled “Where Our Food Comes From: Honoring the Farmworkers and Farmers of Skagit County.”
The exhibit, which will be available in English and Spanish, will open with a celebration from 5 to 7 p.m. on June 5 and remain at the museum until Oct. 25.
While he selected about 50 photographs for the display and 96 for his book, Barber said the total photo count is in the thousands. And inside those captured moments are many, regularly appearing faces, people that Barber got to know more intimately as he gained their trust, despite frequent language barriers, always ensuring he had their permission to photograph their faces and share their stories with the public.
In the first years, Barber would go to the farms on a daily basis, rotating between seven to eight farms around the county. To those unfamiliar with him, that commitment may have come off as odd and somewhat masochistic.
One night in winter, amid what he described as below freezing temperatures, a worker asked him why he was there.
“Because you are,” Barber recalled replying, a response that the worker seemed to like.
Barber’s interest in farming started from a young age, working in the farms near his home in the state of New York. As a young adult in the 1970s, he learned photography, later traveling the world with his camera.
A decade after he and his wife settled in Skagit Valley, surrounded once more by lush crops, livestock and busy people, he finds that farmers and farmworkers are his favorite subject to photograph.
One of the main takeaways from this project — as well as his farmworking experience back in his teen years — is that farmers and farmworkers feel a deep connection to the land and take their craft seriously. And when someone takes notice of that, he said, they are appreciative.
Through photography, Barber hopes to bring awareness to the work that goes into food production and to capture these times of change in the agricultural industry, before technology takes over, he said.
“I think farmers are one of those groups that people are semi-aware of, but (non-farmers) don’t totally understand what those people in the fields are doing,” he said. “They’re taking care of us. They feed us.”
The Skagit County Historical Museum has arranged shuttles that will run 4:30 to 7 p.m. from the south basin parking lot at the La Conner Marina and from the Town of La Conner parking lot. The event will include pizza from Washington State University’s Pizza 4 Producers, a book signing by Barber, and a short reading of the book by John S. Farnsworth.
Luisa Loi is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
