Farmers at the Market - Exhibit Extended Until September 30

Farmers at the Public Market:
Photographs of farmers

who grow and sell their produce
at the Rochester Public Market

Exhibit at Edward G. Miner Library
University of Rochester Medical Center

The Rochester Public Market provides the opportunity to buy produce directly from the farmers that grow them. This exhibit documents these farmers at the market.

 

They are part of a national trend to buy locally grown food: in season and freshly harvested. Much of the produce is picked just before it is sold at the market.. Most of it is grown using sustainable farming practices.

This exhibit celebrates the resurgence of the family farm. All the farmers depend on their farms to provide their livelihood. To survive and flourish they have adapted their crops to include new demands from immigrant populations and rapidly growing ethnic restaurants. Now specialty items, like black radish, daikon and kobacha, are readily available at the market. The market makes this innovation possible by putting local farmers in close contact with their customers.

This exhibit also celebrates the community that has grown at the market, merging old traditions with new cultures, all centered around the food we eat daily.

I started photographing at the market in 2006—to document the seasonal changes and meet vendors and farmers. I received an Arts and Cultural Council grant to photograph and interview farmers at several local farms, shoppers at the market and market staff. I had an exhibit at The Link Gallery in City Hall exhibiting images from that project. My photographs have also been on display at Community Darkroom Galleries, High Falls Gallery, Lavery Library at St. John Fisher, and Lower Link Gallery at Rundel Library.

"With a camera in my hand, I use it as a way to meet and enter into people's lives."