When travel and documentary photographer Valerie Mather ARPS began exploring the world of farming as an idea for a project, she was surprised by what she discovered.
Her interest had been piqued, not just by the beauty of the farmland, but by a startling statistic – only 3% of UK farm workers are under 35. Add in the fact that, in an aging workforce, more than a third (38%) of workers are aged over 65 and the rural idyll becomes more complex.
A former lawyer who retired early to pursue her first love of photography, Mather decided to discover for herself what life was like for the farming community near her Yorkshire home. As she gained the trust of farmers and farmworkers, she began learning of the pressures behind the idyllic image of rural life.
The resulting series earned her an RPS Associateship in 2020, and in 2021 was published as a book of black and white photographs. Her success led the National Trust to invite Mather to spend a year documenting the lives of its tenant farmers in the North York Moors. Now, those images are being exhibited at the National Trust property Nunnington Hall in Fields, Folds and Farming Life.
Here, Mather explains what drove her work with the farming community – and how it changed her life.
The National Trust is staging an exhibition of your series Fields, Folds and Farming Life. What inspired the collaboration?
My journey into the world of farming was originally inspired by an article in Country Life magazine in 2019 which said that only 3% of UK farmers are under 35. This alarming statistic made me want to see for myself what life was like for small farms in Yorkshire. So I set out to build relationships and visit the farmers in my area.
That led to a book of black and white photographs in 2021 – images from which were awarded an Associateship with the RPS. The book was featured in Country Life and led to the National Trust inviting me to spend a year exploring the working lives and environment of their tenant upland farmers in Bransdale, on the North York Moors.
You photographed the upland farmers in Bransdale for a year. What were the main challenges you encountered while documenting such a close-knit community?
Building trust was essential, but I think being genuinely interested in the people I photograph goes a long way towards getting them comfortable.
Staying safe while still getting the close-up images that engender a powerful connection in the viewer – the animals live on the moors much of the year and while they recognise the farmers, I was a stranger to them.
Patience and pacing my energy levels – farmers work long hours and staying in the moment requires concentration, otherwise something magical happens and you miss it, such as the birth of a lamb for example.
With many farmers facing economic hardship during the cost of living crisis, how did this equate with your experiences of farming life?
It’s a hard life. All the upland farmers have had to diversify or work second jobs away from the farm to make ends meet. It’s also a beautiful life, lived among nature. It was a joy to learn from the upland farmers about how they are continuously working to achieve a balance between farming and nature. I personally observed their active engagement with nature-friendly farming and conservation initiatives. Whether you are born into it or not, in my experience, farming is a vocation and not simply a job.
What is your favourite photograph from the series and why?
My personal reactions to the images are, of course, coloured by the emotions I felt when pressing the shutter each time and the engagement with my subjects on that particular day. An image that stands out for that reason was made during a lunchbreak from making silage on a scorching hot July day. The farm workers sat in the shade of their giant machines, eating sandwiches and laughing about how it beat sitting in an office. As talk turned to the rapidly rising costs of farming, their laughter and smiles gave way to silent contemplation – a reminder for me of the importance of valuing our British farming community and how shopping locally can make a difference.
You have spoken about your love of photographing people in pursuit of what Henri Cartier- Bresson described as the ‘decisive moment’. Tell us about that.
Documentary photography is, for me personally, all about genuinely candid, unposed moments, as opposed to posed portraits. There is no makeup or dress rehearsal. I am inspired by certain quotes and one of my favourites is by Paul Caponigro: “It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” That is what interests me as a photographer, no matter how much longer it takes in order to capture a genuine moment. I believe documentary photography has an important role to play – telling stories and allowing us an insight into communities other than our own.
How has your journey to an Associate Distinction helped you as a photographer?
I learnt a great deal about the technical side of things – the importance of light and shade, post processing techniques and so on, as the RPS require the highest of technical standards. That took many hours of improvement and having a goal kept me focused. Importantly, over time, I also developed an eye for not only single emotional compositions, but also storytelling within an image.
All images from the exhibition Fields, Folds and Farming Life by Valerie Mather ARPS. You can see the exhibition at the National Trust property Nunnington Hall until 17 December.
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