The urban farmers of the Global Garden Refugee Farm in Chicago, Illinois:
Than Naing Oo harvests garlic inside the Global Gardens largest hoop house on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024. Naing Oo, a refugee from the Kayin (fromerly known as the Karen State) State in Burma, is one of the farm’s seven market farmers and sells his produce to farmers markets around Chicago, primarily those on the Northside neighborhoods such as Portage Park and Andersonville.
Husband and wife, Ma Thenk Aye and Aunte Aye tend to their shared land plot at the Albany Park Global Garden farm on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.
Ma Thenk Aye works to create a small fence for him and his wife's market land plot at the Global Garden Refugee farm on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.
Celectine Chizanye, a refugee from Burundi who has been at the Global Refugee Farm since 2013, harvests wild spinach in her plot inside the agriculture tent on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. The tent helps farmers extend the warmer seasons for their produce, allowing them to harvest and sell produce for almost 9 months out of the year.
Celectine Chizanye, one of the dozen market farmers, washes a freshly harvested water spinach that is designated to be distributed through a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. The washing station is located in the farm’s community area where farmers prepare produce and share meals.
Celectine Chizanye poses for a photograph before going to finish harvesting produce for the day and before the sun sets on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024.
Paw Ra harvests the last of the seasons pumpkin leaves on her family plot at the Global Garden farm on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.
A family farmer in the Global Refugee Garden peels vegetables inside his handmade agriculture tent on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024.
Ka Nay Moo, a refugee from Burma and another one of the farm’s market farmers, harvests arugula from her plot inside the agriculture tent on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. This produce is also planned to be distributed through the CSA program as well.
The Global Refugee Farm in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. The farm located behind a neighborhood community farm is designed to be used just by refugees in the city of Chicago and is home to various types of produce including leafy greens, tomatoes and gourds as well as produce native to Southeast Asia including Opo squash, Thai basil, lemongrass and long beans.
A farmer tends to his plot designmeted for market farming on Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024. The space is surrounded by handmade infrastructure used to protect produce from unfavorable weather conditions.
While harvesting garlic, Than Naing Oo inspects the large hoop house at the Global Garden farm on Monday, Nov. 4, 2024.
Below are more examples of photography-based reporting that I have completed in the past few years. For more editorial and experimental photography, visit the “analog” page.
Roman Villarreal poses in front of a sculpture he is currently working on at his Southeast Chicago studio located at 9300 South Chicago Avenue on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. Made entirely out of limestone, the sculpture represents a snapping turtle that has a tribal calendar dedicated to the Potawatomi Nation.
Using an array of tools – both hand and mechanical – Roman Villarreal uses a chisel and hammer to get detailed texture and on a second limestone snapping turtle sculpture on Friday, Nov. 8, 2024. Similar to its counterpart, this turtle that will represent a calendar of the Miami Nation, still needs to go through the sanding process before it is completed.
Dr. Chef Michael Airhart’s cooks fresh meals on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023 for his organization, Taste for the Homeless. For over 15 years, Airhart has been feeding people all over the Chicago-area free of charge, every day of the year. (For an in-depth story, visit this page.) Singer and song-writer, Grace Bloom, perfroms at Subterranean in Chicago on Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023.GROA, a four-piece band from Iceland, perform an electric set at Chicago’s annual “Taste of Iceland” festival at Martyrs in the North Center neighborhood on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023.Artist, Bojana Ilić, poses in front of a large scale painitng in her Chicago studio on Sunday, April 30, 2023. An immigrant from Serbia, Ilić works on both public and private art pieces throughout the city.Dr. Airhart holds a perfectly cooked pork chop during the last round of grilling on Saturday, Nov. 11 2023.
Darron Clark enjoys eating his meal made up of lemon-pepper pork-chops, baked beans and mustard potato salad on Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023 all expertly cooked up by Chef Michael Airhart in Chicago’s South side in Englewood.