Inspired by an article in Country Life, which stated that only 3% of UK farmers are under 35, country-minded photographer Valerie Mather has created a beautiful book to help give this community a voice. The photographs featured in Yorkshire Born & Bred: Farming Life won her a Royal Photographic Society Associateship last year.
Many of our farmers come from families that have tended the same soil for generations, often struggling to make a living in the face of ignorance and, especially these days, ill-informed negative press about animal welfare.
What’s more, ‘the average age of a British farmer is 59, meaning they are mostly in their sixties and seventies’, without obvious successors, she explains. ‘There are other worrying statistics, too, such as the fact that the suicide rate for farmers is almost twice the national average.’
Miss Mather chose to document farming families in Yorkshire to give the industry a boost in these ‘challenging and changing times’. ‘I feel passionately that these people don’t have a voice and I want to raise awareness of their plight as, without these custodians, our landscape will be degraded or lost to development, as will our choice to eat high-quality, healthy, locally produced food,’ she writes.
‘Farming is hard work, but the passion for this way of life is still there on the faces of the people in this book.’
Credit: Rex
Curious Questions: How do you take a group photo in which nobody is blinking?
Six utterly glorious images of Britain's natural wonders, to inspire you and help out the John Muir Trust in 2020
The John Muir Trust's Wild Nature diary and calendar is filled with stunning images of our natural wonders.
-
Barbour’s heritage jackets get a floral makeover courtesy of ErdemUtilitarian outwear has taken the fashion world by storm and now Britain's world-famous wax jackets are getting in on the act, inspired by some of our greatest countryside icons.
-
Brockfield Hall, the great Yorkshire house that's gone from Regency mansion to modern family homeBrockfield Hall in North Yorkshire is the family home of Charlie Wood and Hatta Byng, editor of House & Garden, who have transformed it since they came here in 2020, winning multiple awards in the process. John Martin Robinson reports on the restoration project that revived this compact Regency house as a modern family home. Photographs by Paul Highnam for Country Life.
-
Country Life's top 10 arts stories of 2024From the artist killed on his first day in the war to a masterpiece once sold for £30, these were our most popular arts stories of 2024.
-
The grand master 'paintings' that are actually the most exquisite floral photographs you'll ever seeHarald Altmaier’s photographs of floral tableaux, as colossal in effort as in scale, recall 17th-century Dutch still lifes, but the inspiration behind them is far wider, as Carla Passino finds.
-
Dawn Chorus: The photographer-florist creating modern Grand Masters, plus Ashdown Forest and our Quiz of the DayA look at the work of Harald Altmaier, an unusual solution to an imaginary problem, and much more besides in today's Dawn Chorus.
-
The story of how 007 creator Ian Fleming came to write Chitty-Chitty-Bang-BangChitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, our fine four-fendered friend, turns 60 on October 22nd. Mary Miers relives the adventures of the magical flying car and reveals the little-known story of its creation by Ian Fleming, as the writer turned his attention from the world of 007 to a children's tale.
-
Goodwood Revival 2024: What you missed at the world's most elegant motor race weekendThe Goodwood Revival is one of the highlights of the summer — even when the weather does its best to put a damper on things.
-
'If you get 12 great photographs a year, you're doing well': Charlie Waite on the secrets of landscape photographyThe world-renowned landscape photographer Charlie Waite joins the Country Life Podcast.
-
Bert Hardy: The photographer who chronicled mid-century Britain, from the Blitz to BlackpoolThe work of photographer Bert Hardy is celebrated in a new show at The Photographers’ Gallery in London.
-
Christmas gifts for children that don't need screens or take batteriesDon't just pick up the latest plastic toys with lights and noises – take a look at these gifts which kids will love just as much as you do.
