Evidence for the Sleep of Reason in the Garden of the Hudson Valley

Danksammer

In 1987 I began to make photographs of the changes taking place in the landscape and in the cultural perceptions surrounding agriculture happening in the rural farming community where I grew up. Marlboro-on-Hudson and Milton are two small villages along the west side of the Hudson River in the Mid-Hudson Valley Region of New York. Since Colonial times, farming was the main industry, and apples the most abundant product, but grapes and other tree fruits and berries were also grown there.

By the late 1950s International Business Machines (IBM) had expanded its operations in the Hudson Valley. “People think better in the country” they said! During the 1960s land was still fairly cheap in this particular area and people began moving from all parts of the world, as well as the inner city of nearby Newburgh, to build modest homes in the spectacular landscape. Modular housing and lax zoning laws allowed orchards to be carved up and built in. Many of the aging farmers gave land for the housing of their children’s families, few of whom would ever become farmers themselves. During the ensuing years what “Monsters” have we created with our capriciousness, our military-industrial complexes, and big box stores?

No longer “rural”, the more random and modern ways of living and working in the Hudson Valley have created a new culture; one with an emphasis on corporate businesses, industrial farming and land as commodity. It has resulted in a loss of cohesiveness in the community and abuse of the very land on which it exists. Many McMansions sit on five empty acres; and “space” has supplanted “place” where we no longer know our neighbors.

It is my hope that “When we see (the) land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” - Aldo Leopold