The More Things Change (take two)

Photographer: Tress, Arthur - Original Caption: Broad Channel, Marginal Land in Jamaica Bay near the JFK Airport. New York City Owns This Land and Leases It for Five Year Periods. This Renter Is Cultivating a Vegetable Garden 05/1973

It doesn't matter whether you're focusing on the past, what's happening today or trying to envision the future. The things that matter remain the same. For the Documerica Project (1971-1977), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hired freelance photographers to capture images relating to environmental problems, EPA activities, and everyday life in the 1970s. The pictures here are just a few by photographer Arthur Tress. They capture a piece of New York City's environmental history, and can be viewed along with others from the project at the National Archives' Flickr pages here.

Photographer: Tress, Arthur Original Caption: Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge

Photographer: Tress, Arthur - Original Caption: Landfill Operation Is Conducted by the City of New York on the Marshlands of Jamaica Bay. Pollution Hazards and Ecological Damage Have Called Out Strong Opposition 05/1973

The More Things Change

Farmland in the Taconic range, near the Hudson River Valley in New York state (LOC) by The Library of Congress, on Flickr.
Collier, John,, 1913-1992,, photographer.

...the more the issues of the day remain the same and there is nothing new in the world under the sun. (I could throw in some more idioms if you like.) These pictures are from the Library of Congress, circa the 1940's, of New York state farmland and a homestead in Pietown, New Mexico. When I look at those old pictures of New York famland, I wonder how that land looks today and if it's still being farmed.


Farmland in the Catskill Mountains, Richmondsville, N.Y. (LOC) by The Library of Congress, on Flickr
Collier, John,, 1913-1992,, photographer.

Garden adjacent to the dugout home of Jack Whinery, homesteader, Pie Town, New Mexico (LOC) by The Library of Congress, on Flickr
Lee, Russell,, 1903-1986,, photographer.

Farm Dreams

Brooklyn grown bouquet.

It wasn't so long ago that my farm dreams were of vegetables only. Now I can't picture that fantasy farm in my mind without some part of it dedicated to flower farming. It's too bad that it's a farm dream a century plus too late. There was a time when farms were the norm here in Brooklyn. The end of Brooklyn's agricultural era and the beginning of the development of Brooklyn as we know it today is captured in the book Of Cabbages and Kings County. It's a bit of a dry scholarly read, but interesting. Especially when you think of how some of that agricultural history is being echoed today with the current interest in urban farming, vegetable gardening and rooftop farms. Who knows, maybe farm dreams are universal and we're all just dreaming the same dream these days. And maybe it's not too late. Maybe it's just the right time for farm dreams.

Bouquet by Joe. Nasturtium and lavender from his garden, yarrow and sweet pea flowers from mine.