Over the course of his 45-year career, photographer Richard W. Brown has traveled all around the world and seen more than 25 books of his photographs published in the U.S., Europe, and Japan. But his most recent project brings everything back home, literally: In The Last of the Hill Farms: Echoes of Vermont’s Past, Brown has collected 90 black-and-white images from his early days living in and photographing Vermont farms in the state’s rural Northeast Kingdom.
Miller Farm, Peacham, 1971. Photo Credit : Richard W. Brown
The book, published late in 2017 by Boston-based independent David R. Godine, is filled with portraits of hardscrabble farms and the people who worked them — haunting, elegiac images of buildings and landscapes that have all but vanished today. There’s Theron Boyd of Quechee, photographed in 1977 in the same farmhouse where he was born in 1901; there are John and Gladys Somers of West Barnet, standing in the doorway of their barn in West Barnet, their faces and hands speaking of a lifetime of work.
“I hope readers will see I had such high regard for the people I photographed,” Brown says in the January/February issue of Yankee, which features a photo essay drawn from The Last of the Hill Farms. “I really liked them and felt that what they were doing was a beautiful thing, even though I don’t think they thought of it that way.”
The following are some additional images from Brown’s book. See more in the photo essay “The Last of the Hill Farms,” in the January/February 2018 issueof Yankee.
HILL FARMS OF VERMONT | Additional Photos by Richard W. Brown
On the Porch, West Barnet, 1975. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownNovember Light, Tunbridge, 1971. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownJohn’s Favorite, West Barnet, 1972. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownApproaching Storm, Barnet, 1974. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownLocke Goss, Barnet Center, 1972. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownWinter Orchard, Pomfret, 1975. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownTheron Boyd, Quechee, 1977. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownSheep Farm, Bethel, 1975. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownWanda, Walden, 1975. Photo Credit : Richard W. BrownTo see more of Brown’s work, visit his website or rwbrownphotography.com.
Heather Marcus is the senior photo editor for Yankee Magazine. She works closely with the art director and a large group of contributing photographers to tell our stories about people and place in a compelling way. Living and growing up in New England, she continues to be inspired by the communities, the landscape, and the wonderful visual opportunities the region affords.
