Field Work
by Jason Reed
by Jason Reed
Over the last twenty years, Jason Reed has been photographing his family’s cotton and maize farm in West Texas. The land sits near Wall, a farming community at the southern end of the Great Plains. Reed’s in-laws have run the farm for more than 50 years. Before that, they worked alongside their parents on this same land; they are the third generation to farm here. These semi-arid flatlands now serve as the starting point for a globalized cotton chain. Millions of pounds of cotton are harvested in the region every year, most of which are shipped 7,000 miles away on cargo ships to China for milling and production.
Each fall, Reed’s wife ritually returns to help her father harvest the cotton. Alongside her, he has been visiting, working on, and photographing this place for the entirety of his adult life. Their children too know the farm as an essential part of their lives. These photographs hold on to some of that experience, a practice of attention that points to the repetition of labor, the slow and expansive time of the open country, the local production of a global commodity, and the generations of a family.
Each fall, Reed’s wife ritually returns to help her father harvest the cotton. Alongside her, he has been visiting, working on, and photographing this place for the entirety of his adult life. Their children too know the farm as an essential part of their lives. These photographs hold on to some of that experience, a practice of attention that points to the repetition of labor, the slow and expansive time of the open country, the local production of a global commodity, and the generations of a family.
$20 ︎ Add to Cart
7x10 in. OTA Softcover Binding
BW and Color Offset, 176 pages
Photographs/Text by Jason Reed
Typography by M. Wright
Published in 2022
Edition of 350
Special Edition - Sold Out
7x10 in. OTA Softcover Binding
BW and Color Offset, 176 pages
Photographs/Text by Jason Reed
Typography by M. Wright
Published in 2022
Edition of 350
Special Edition - Sold Out
Signed and Numbered Book
and a 5x7” Inkjet Print
Limited Edition of 20
