Photographer Paul Mobley brings
‘American Farmer’ to Birmingham market

By Mary Beth Almond
C & G Staff Writer

BIRMINGHAM — The day photographer Paul Mobley decided to ask a farmer at a local coffee shop if he could take his picture, he had no clue it would lead him on a three-year journey across the country, capturing the soul of America’s farming communities.

“It was a life-changing experience. I had never encountered such kindness and dignity in people,” Mobley said.

Frustrated by the monotony of shooting commercial photography in New York City, Mobley had decided to escape with his family to northern Michigan for a camera-free summer vacation.

“I felt that if I picked up a camera and it was stressful, I shouldn’t be picking it up because it’s supposed to be a joy for me. What it represented — at that time — for me, was a deadline and a lot of stress,” he said.

But sitting across the table from a line of weathered faces in the very coffee shop near Glen Arbor that he had visited hundreds of times before, Mobley’s intentions for his summer vacation went right out the door.

“I don’t know what prompted me to do it, but I said, ‘Would you mind if I came by and took your picture?’ and the guy said, ‘Why would you want to take my picture, an ugly old guy like me?’ … I remember specifically thinking in my mind, I’m not going to do this for anybody else but me. I’m going to make this picture for me, and that’s really what started it,” Mobley said.

Driven by a renewed sense of passion, Mobley embarked on a journey through 37 states — traveling almost 100,000 miles and taking more than 30,000 pictures of modest, hardworking men and women.

He photographed Gene and Dean Veliquette, who grow cherries in Michigan, among eight other Michigan farmers; he photographed Ernie Righetti, a 90-year-old avocado grower in California; and he even took a photo of the oldest living person in the world, Edna Parker of Indiana, who was 114 at the time. But the picture that continues to sum up the whole experience for Mobley is of Walter Jackson, a 105-year-old citrus farmer from Florida.

“I took him outside and we were talking, and I asked him — anybody who was over 100 I always asked about the key to long life. He was talking about this, but then all of a sudden, he looked up to the sky and said something like, ‘The dear Lord has been good to me,’ and you can see it in his eyes. I was very, very lucky to have seen him look up at the sky, and I snapped that picture. You can see how the clouds reflect in his eyes,” he said.

Visit after visit, Mobley came to know the hardships and joys of a disappearing way of life, gaining the utmost respect for those who put food on tables across the nation.

“I knew after I had gone to 20 states that I had more than enough work, but I didn’t want to stop. It was such a wonderful feeling for me. It was a feeling of freedom … for me, it was really about making a connection with the people. That’s what I’m most proud of with the pictures,” he said.

Mobley will reunite with eight of the Michigan farmers featured in his book, “American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country,” at the Birmingham Farmers Market — in Parking Lot 6 on the east side of North Old Woodward — Oct. 19 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Birmingham’s “Market Master” Richard “Cousin Don” Hobson, whose family has been involved in farmers markets for five generations by selling organic produce from the family farm in Clifford, is one of them.

“To him, as a photographer, I jumped out of a group of people at the farmers market like a tomato does to me. … It’s a very humbling experience to have your picture in a book,” he said.

Now Hobson’s mission is to go see all of the other farmers featured in the book.

“I’ve said for years, know a farmer, know your food. This (book) gives a lot more people an opportunity to know a farmer. It makes the next generation more aware of where their food sources are coming from,” he said.

“American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country,” hits store shelves Oct. 14. Those interested in pre-ordering the book can visit www.amazon.com.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Beth Almond at malmond@candgnews.com or at (586) 498-1060.