Austin Reynolds, (b.1993) is from Saint. Augustine, Florida. Reynolds is a fine art photographer based in Santa Rosa, California where he is currently attending Santa Rosa Junior College for Digital Filmmaking.
About ‘Where Magpies Mourn’:
This is a selection of photographs taken from Reynold’s series, “Where Magpies Mourn”. This segment of the journey captures the isolation and coarse living that most pot farmers go through. In this country, the winter months are brutal and the farmers undergo complete isolation for months. Even in spring, it is still well below freezing at times, and extremely dry.
These photos were taken during the late season in which trimming the leaf from the bud is being completed and young plants are being set out and nurtured. Like most people, I had no idea of the reality of what it takes to commercially supply marijuana.
It takes complete and undivided attention at all times, for you take the risk of tens of thousands of dollars. Leaving aside the nature of the crop, Reynolds found himself looking at what it must have been like to be a farmer in an earlier century: isolated, hours from main roads, grocery stores and retail, you find yourself making use of the environment around you.
Becoming minimal and going back to the old west– wood-burning ovens, sleeping bags and all but conversation as a source of entertainment; after a while, it becomes natural and even blissful. Up in the hills beyond the junipers, live those who put their blood, sweat, and tears–literally– into the bowl you smoke.
For most growers the money made doesn’t equate to what is gained being sold on the street. At heart for them it is the lifestyle that is the true reward, leaving behind society and taking root in the nest of the wilderness.
