Rural life at heart of new exhibition
Shepherds, pictured on the summit of Ingleborough, are among those featured in the exhibition
- Published
A new exhibition about rural life has gone on display at a museum in the Yorkshire Dales.
Labour of Love, by photographer Rob Fraser and writer Harriet Fraser, can be seen at the Dales Countryside Museum in Hawes.
It features written and photographic portraits of the farmers, gamekeepers and conservationists who work on Ingleborough Common, Grassington Common and Brant Fell Common near Sedbergh.
The exhibition runs until 8 September.
Rob and Harriet Fraser gathered stories by meeting people who farm and manage commons in the Yorkshire Dales National Park, Dartmoor, the Lake District and the Shropshire Hills over two years.
“For commoners there is a lot of uncertainty and threats to this way of life – and we’ve been cataloguing that," Ms Fraser said.
“At the heart of our work is meeting people and listening to people.
"I’m out and about with my microphone, Rob with his camera."
Harriet and Rob Fraser spent two years collecting the photographs and gathering stories
Ms Fraser said they had learned something from everybody they had met.
"Whether we’re on a peat bog, or on the fell looking at dung beetles, or talking about management of the sheep, or talking to somebody from the National Trust about how to deal with the challenges we are facing"
Rob Fraser said: “I enjoy making people feel comfortable in their own space, standing where they feel like they are part of that landscape – and then press the button.
"It’s normally about a half a second exposure on my large format plate camera. Just for that fleeting moment they look into the camera, they look at you, from where they are."
He said it had been a privilege to spend time with people who had such "attachment to these spaces".
Labour of Love is being staged as part of Our Common Cause: Our Upland Commons, a three-year project led by charity Foundation for Land.
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