R. J. Kern
R. J. Kern
The Unchosen Ones: Portraits of an American Pastoral
Hardcover
136 Pages
First Edition
MW Editions / ArtBook DAP
2021
About the Book:
A new book by award-winning Minneapolis-based photographer R. J. Kern (born 1978), The Unchosen Ones features portraits of future farmers in America’s heartland. Kern’s subjects are Minnesota 4-H members posing with their farm animals. Each one spent a year raising an animal, which they then entered into a 4-H competition. Kern first photographed them in 2016, and none of the children who sat for him succeeded in winning an award, despite the obvious care they had given to their animals.
The formal qualities of Kern’s lighting and setting endow these young people with a gravitas beyond their years, revealing self-directed dedication in some, and in others, perhaps, the pressures of traditions imposed upon them. These beautiful portraits capture a certain America, a rural world and a time in life when the layered emotions of youth are laid bare.
Four years later, in 2020, Kern returned to photograph and interview his young subjects. The new images are poignant when juxtaposed with the originals, tapping into the mindset of America’s agricultural youth. The diptychs of the children are punctuated by lush landscapes of the farms where these children have grown up. As he took the second group of photographs, Kern inquired about what his young subjects had carried forward from their previous experience. What were their thoughts, their advice, their dreams and their goals for the future? How do they fit in future agricultural America?
Book review by Dana Stirling |
“…After the 4-H lam lead show, I met the fourth-place finishers, Josilin, and her sheep, Tantor. I could see Josilin was disappointed. Yet she held her head high…”
“…I continued to think about Josilin’s resilience and wondered if I could make a series of portraits of the kids who didn’t win first place, who weren’t chosen despite all their hard work.”
These quotes from R. J.’s essay in his monograph, The Unchosen Ones (MW Editions, 2021), for me, define perfectly what this project is all about.
In his work, R. J. has documented in 2016 youth in 4-H competition that did not win first place. Some of you, just like me, don’t necessarily know about this event or did not grow up around farms or farm animals. I decided to read a little about what this event is and what is its goal before moving forward with this review because as a small city girl who is not from the U.S. Originally, this subject was pretty foreign to me. In a nut shell, 4-H as a whole strives to provide kids with tools while giving them the opportunity to learn by doing in various subjects like STEM, agriculture, health, science and more. In this case, R. J.’s photos showcase youth alongside their goats or sheep. They represent the future of farming in the U.S and the connection between humans and animals in a modern world that is growing further and further away from the traditional farm life.
Having understood a little more about the framework of the work I read R. J. essay and those quotes stood out to me. I was intrigued first by the fact that all these youth are what we might say the “losers” of the competition. We often celebrate and highlight the first place winners, but here we are faced with the youth who were close yet did not win. Why them? Why not show the winner? Well, I think in a way we have all been the under-dog in one way or another in life. We don’t always succeed and we don’t always “win” and if that is not a life changing lesson for a kid to learn early, I don’t know what is.
Josilin held her head high. Yes, she lost and it was disappointing but she held her head high. Josilin is many of us right now. Maybe we didn’t get into the show we applied to, or got another rejection email or lost a job opportunity, but we are moving forward to the next step in our journey, just like Josilin.
R. J. took these images back in 2016, and then in 2020 reconnected with the same youth to photograph them years later. The book showcases these two portraits side by side where we can see the physical changes; they are taller, older and have changed so much. Some look pretty close to their 2016 portrait, some look like completely different people. Time is an amazing thing and photography is the absolute perfect tool to capture this sense of time.
R. J. chose to document all these portraits on a studio backdrop, while still showing the environment around the backdrop creating a small out door studio that does not shy away from its artificiality. We all know Richard Avedon and how he traveled thought various states with his 8-by-10 camera and back in the early 80s to create minimalistic yet historical portraits of individuals he met along that trip. He used a white backdrop and photographed these people right there and then, no studio needed, on the go. R. J. has all of the ability and skills to crop the portrait in such a way that the backdrop is nothing more than a color background for the portrait, but he decided to make the backdrop a part of the image itself. The backdrop is not just a tool to make the photo, it is an active choice of the artist to showcase the act of photographing, showing the viewer that he is there, with them, in the field.
This choice reminds me of the artist Myoung Ho Lee who documented trees on white backdrops, also while showing the surrounding. I find this act to be a powerful statement and it breaks the fourth wall that photography often creates.
In the end, when we look at these images, we are faced with both the feeling of disappointment, but we are also able to share the joy that these youth brought for taking care of their animals in preparation for this show. They worked hard and their hard work is not forever documented in these images, so even though they didn’t win – didn’t they? Because they are in this book and the first place winners are not so – you can say that’s a pretty great win.
I think this book deals with the notions of failure, disappointment, childhood, aging and in a way this is also a story of American history, culture and future. These images capture stories that are very local to not only the U.S., but in this case Minnesota, and the use of farming and how it affects not only the youth but all of us in today’s modern society.
