Beneath the gently rolling Loretto Hills of Kentucky, 11-year-old Zoey Allen rides bareback through fields of corn and soybean while her grandfather, shirtless and leather-skinned, walks methodically through rows of freshly cut hay. “I’m as good as any farmer,” Jackie Allen told me that day. And at 62, he looks the part. The 260 acres under his feet, established by his grandfather before him, are indeed the only world he’s ever known. His face and hands hold the unmistakable texture of someone intimate with hard work. Standing next to him, his granddaughter exudes the same grit. For Zoey, re-imagining her relationship to the land means embracing her “natural gift” and helping her grandfather train horses for Kentucky’s agricultural elite to offset declining farm revenue. And together, the Allens represent the best that American farms have to offer. They are the summation of generational knowledge and skill, passed down through family lineage. For centuries the world has benefited from this tradition of generational intimacy with the land. But as industrialized agriculture continues to grow, the Allen’s find themselves creatively diversifying to stay afloat. From dairy farmer to logger, horse trainer to professional fisherman, Jackie Allen’s role has evolved over the years to meet his family’s need. “I wanna keep the farm,” he said. “And I do my best to keep it. But you gotta take from this part of your business to pay for that part of your business, just to keep it going. So that’s what I’m doing. And I’ll do it as long as I’m able to do it.”

For thousands of years, humanity has benefited from generational intimacy with the land. But as farms and ranches continue to consolidate across America, traditional midsize farms – once the majority – are in steady decline, and those who remain find themselves on the precipice of an ever-widening chasm into which more than four million farming families have vanished since 1948. Dubbed the “hollowing out” of agriculture, this global phenomenon of a disappearing middle is actively shaping the rural communities of our time. And for the thousands of children growing up in this context, the journey of self-discovery is increasingly complicated.

The Last Generation is a collection of coming-of-age stories representing these would-be farmers, chronicling their quest for identity as they choose to adaptor abandon a generational legacy around agriculture. By elevating the points of view of young people and their elders, the work illustrates the vital role traditional midsize farms and ranches have played in the preservation of culture over time, and asks ‘what is lost?’ when the forces shaping modern agriculture continue unabated. As a majority of the world’s producers are gradually pushed to the margins, and our collective connection to the land thins, The Last Generation offers a timeless visual record that dignifies those caught in this disappearing middle, and elevates those charting pathways out of it.

Zoey Allen plays with a hoverboard she received forher eleventh birthday in Bardstown, Kentucky. As ahorse lover and avid barrel racer, Zoey dreams of oneday working with horses on a farm of her own.

Fine Art Print Available.