So this is the photo that has become a finalist in The 1999 Gordon Parks Photography Competition at Fort Scott Community College, Fort Scott, Kansas. Gordon Parks was one of the great Life magazine photographers. I believe he also directed and/or wrote some movies in Hollywood, one of them the movie Shaft. Fort Scott apparently is his hometown, or at least the town he was born and raised in. Don't take these facts as Gospel, I might have something mixed up here. In the interest of posting this page I have not taken the time to verify this info.
This photograph is from a documentary series I began in the Spring of 1998 and continues to the present. I am documenting a family dairy farm in the far northern part of New York state, close to the Canadian border. Their farm, built in the 1800's, is a reminder of the regions heritage. Their lifestyle is one of of traditional farm values. I have financed and persued this project soley by myself. With my money and on my time. It is my attempt to preserve a rapidly vanishing lifestyle and landscape. Hopefully we will see it take more form some time in the future. Gary Walts