The Last of the Hill Farms: Echoes of Vermont's Past

Yankee Magazine published a piece this month about the book featuring some of the photographs. When I read about the book's forthcoming publication, I immediately pre-ordered. The photographs, and the stories surrounding them, are a genuine look into the past, of Vermont's rural farms, farmers and farm life. It reveals the rugged resolve of the farmers - this is their life, and they tend to it. The photographer has been able to capture the struggles etched in their faces; you see the work their bodies have done over their lives, and feel it reach back generations.I couldn't be happier with the book, and only wish it had been longer.

I bought this book for my 85 year old mother. She is in early stages of dementia and talks all the time about her for years living in East Hardwick Vermont. I was so excited to find this book . It had mostly photography with very little reading which is what my mother needs right now. I was a little disappointed that there were not more descriptions and excerpts that went along with the pictures. I would have liked to have known a little bit about each one.I now watch moms looking at the pictures and smiling and talking to herself about her best friend things they did back when they were around 10 years old.

This book brought tears to my husbands' eyes. He is one of the last farmers in our town and knows many of the people in the book.

There are few books I can think of that bring the reader to tears and this is one of them. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and boy does that ring true when it comes to the work of Richard Brown. Last of the Hill Farms is an authentic look at a people who struggled to the bitter end to sustain a way of life that was all but gone. Their values and philosophy are visible not only on their faces but among the houses, barns, fences and fields that they were caretakers of. If you have any interest in the bygone era of small, self-sufficient farms and tradesmen; this book is a must have. Thankfully Richard Brown was able to so artfully and impeccably capture the remnants of a small but strong society in the short years before it fell prey to the indiscriminate fangs of our current era of technologically driven and constantly connected.

Even as a Montanan who has never visited Vermont, I have followed Richard Brown's photography for over 35 years and have always marveled at his ability to capture the most simply moments so elegantly. This book is an important documentary of Vermont's recent past, and it's unfortunate that every state could not have had a Richard Brown to capture their vanishing rural heritage. Brown should go down in history as one of America's greatest photographic historians.

Richard Brown's photos are exceptional. They the story of small family Vermont dairy farms in a way no text could.

I was reminded of just how physically hard people at the turn of the century must have worked, as these folks do even today. Yet there was a joy and peace they seem to possess. This reminded me of the Scripture at Eccl. 2:24: "There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and find enjoyment in his hard work. This too, I have realized, is from the hand of the true God." Richard W. Brown, you have stirred these thoughts in my mind by your wonderful photographs.

These amazing photos show the hard times and the beauty of life in the hill farms decades ago. The photographer's respect for the people comes through in every photo. It is an important book for understanding what life was like in Vermont on the old farms.