OXFORD, Md. — If you talk to anyone in the Maryland farming community about needing a professional photographer, odds are that the first name to come up will be that of Edwin Remsberg.
To many at the Maryland Department of Agriculture, the University of Maryland Extension, and countless farmers and producers across the state, Remsberg is known as Maryland’s premiere agricultural photographer.
Standing a little less then 6 foot tall, with kind eyes behind round frames, his easy smile and naturally calm demeanor lend well to photographing subjects that can occasionally be recalcitrant, like farmers and their livestock.
His unassuming nature, however, doesn’t tell the whole story up front. A photographer, farmer, pilot and world traveler, Remsberg himself is a modern-day Renaissance man who has captured images in all 50 states, and in 40 other countries as well.
A large-scale aerial rendition of Worms Farms harvesting watermelons in Preston, Md.
Recently, Remsberg’s photos were the ones chosen to be featured in “Rooted in the Land: A Tribute to Eastern Shore Farmers,” a show at the Oxford Museum in Talbot County celebrating farmers and farms on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
“Rooted in the Land” is a companion exhibit to the “Crossroads: Change in Rural America” exhibition from the Smithsonian’s Museum on Mainstreet program. It is the local precursor to the Smithsonian’s traveling installation, which was crafted by the Smithsonian “to offer small towns a chance to look at their own paths, to highlight the changes that affected their fortunes over the past century. The exhibition will prompt discussions about what happened when America’s rural population became a minority of the country’s population and the ripple effects that occurred.”
Several small towns chosen to host the traveling Smithsonian exhibit also chose to bookend that event with companion exhibits of their own.
Remsberg’s show, which opened Aug. 13, will be just a short walk away from the Smithsonian’s exhibit that opens at St. Paul’s Church on Oct. 29 and runs through Dec. 16. Remsberg’s exhibit will continue to run concurrently with the “Crossroads” installation through mid-December.
Photos of Maryland farmers in the Remsberg exhibit. Pictured at left is Matt Taylor of Taylor Farms, and to the right, Zeke Collins of Collins Farms.
The town of Oxford perches quietly next to the Chesapeake Bay, with many of its farms just a short distance from the water. The quaint and historic Oxford Museum, which was previously a country general store, provides a clean and simplistic background that makes the farmer photos vibrant. Remsberg’s 24 photos feature a variety of farmers and farm products photographed in full color, many at close range to the subjects. In one, a blonde female farmer sits atop her red tractor in front of her vineyard; the next photo features a closeup of her hand with a ripened cluster of white grapes. Another pair of photos are arranged side by side — one of a young farmer in his corn field, the other of a farmer sitting in a barn full of hay, and a real life pitchfork hangs on the museum wall between them.
The larger photos show Remsberg’s proficiency with a drone camera. One features an aerial view of Eastern Shore farmland sandwiched between a river and the Bay, the other a stunning shot done a few dozen feet above a field of watermelons being picked and loaded into a wagon.
On the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 21, friends and colleagues of Remsberg attended a showcase for the exhibit. Among them was John Fairhall, who knows Remsberg from his previous career as a photographer for the Baltimore Sun.
A photo of Jennie Schmidt of Schmidt Farms and her grapes.
“They are truly amazing, stunning even,” Fairhall said about the photos. “You peer into the photo, and you feel like you’re getting to know the farmer better. Their expressions, their environment, the lives they live and the work they do.”
Remsberg hosted a short question-and-answer session about his process as a photographer. The first questions asked of him was, “How did you pick this collection?” to which Remsberg replied, “I wanted to share the width and breadth of who is farming on the Shore.”
That was followed up with a remark about how the photos are up-close-and-personal shots, and questions about why he chose to photograph the subjects that way.
“That’s the way I see and interact with people,” Remsberg said. “It reflects my relationship with the people in the pictures.”
Susan Harrison, executive director of the LEAD Maryland Foundation, remarked that she enjoyed that the “photos are of people of all ages, from children to seniors.”
“I think it’s important, there is a wide range of people farming out there, so I like to represent that,” Remsberg said. “I like working with folks in agriculture, because these are people who are passionate. They’re not just doing a job, they’re living a life. It just happens to be what their job is.”
The evening concluded with remarks from the Maryland Secretary of Agriculture Joseph Bartenfelder and a Secretary’s Citation award presented to Remsberg for his work showcasing the agricultural community.
Edwin Remsberg accepting the Secretary's Citation from Maryland Department of Agriculture Secretary Joseph Bartenfelder.
Further information can be found here.
