Farm Animals
Ninety-Five: Meeting America’s Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs
My photographs of farm animals living in sanctuaries are now featured in the new book “Ninety-Five:
Meeting America’s Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs“. This book can be purchased directly from this web site at a discount price! Read more about this book here.
One of my deepest passions is photographing farm animals living at sanctuaries. I have been a vegan since 1996 and have great concern for the treatment of farm animals. I first started photographing these amazing critters as a visitor to Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen in the late nineties. Around the same time I placed an ad for my photography services in an early edition of VegNews. A few months later Farm Sanctuary contacted me looking for a photographer for their first Gala Fundraiser. I agreed to do it and since then have formed a relationship with the organization, photographing their events as well as the animals at their New York and California sanctuaries.
Co-founders of Woodstock Sanctuary Jenny Brown and Doug Abel
While photographing the critters at Farm Sanctuary I had the pleasure of befriending a charismatic woman named Jenny Brown who was there learning to care for the animals so she could one day start her own sanctuary. A couple years later she and her husband Doug Abel founded Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary in Woodstock, NY.
When they moved onto the land where the sanctuary now resides there was just a nice old farmhouse and a beautiful view. Enlisting the help of friends, neighbors and activists they began building barns and putting up fencing. I spent a few weekends there myself, and feel proud every time I visit of the work we did there.
I have also been fortunate to volunteer my photography services to document their unique fund raisers. Of course my favorite photography subjects are the cute and lovable cows, goats, sheep, chickens, pigs, turkeys, cats, dogs and pigeons that inhabit the magical landscape.
Derek’s Photographs in Ninety-Five
