Changing Works

By Douglas Harper

Subjects: Agriculture, Pictorial works, Dairy farming, Dairying, Agricultural innovations

Description: "The work of Douglas Harper has for two decades documented worlds in eclipse. A glimpse into the life of dairy farmers in upstate New York on the cusp of technological change, Changing Works is no exception. With photographs and interviews with farmers, Harper brings into view a social world altered by machines and stuns us with gorgeous visions of rural times past. As a member of this community, Harper relates compelling stories about families and their dairies that reveal how the advent of industrialized labor changed the way farmers structure their work and organize their lives. His new book charts the transformation of American farming from small dairies based on animal power and cooperative work to industrialized agriculture.". "Changing Works combines Harper's pictures with classic images by photographers such as Gordon Parks, Sol Libsohn, and Charlotte Brooks - men and women whose works during the 1940s documented the mechanization and automation of agricultural practices. Part social history, then, and part analysis of the drive to mass production, Changing Works examines how we farmed a half century ago versus how we do so today through pictures new and old and through discussions with elderly farmers who witnessed the makeover."--BOOK JACKET.