Amish Galleries

I was born and currently live close to an Old Order Amish community in middle
Tennessee. I was always hesitant to do any pictures because of their aversion
to cameras. One day in 1989 I had taken a picture from my van of a buggy
coming up a dirt road.
I sat there and waited for the buggy to pass but it didn't. It stopped. I wondered
if I was about to learn some German. Instead the young Amish man proceeded
to explain to me that as long as I was quite a distance from them or wasn't real
obvious that most off his community didn't mind the cameras. What he and
most others really object to is being asked to pose or when a person takes a
picture from close up where they are obvious. Since then all the pictures I have
taken of the Amish have been taken without anybody even knowing I was
there. Most of my Amish series was done between 1989 and 1998.

One reason I am drawn to the Amish theme is one of my favorite groups of
photographs are those done during the dustbowl years(1930's). Another reason
is because it is like stepping back in time to pre-industrialization. I also admire
their commitment to work, family, and community.