THE INDEPENDENTS: HINXDON DAIRY, KENT

Hinxdon Dairy near the village of Benendon in Kent is run by the Manford Family who began life there in the 1930’s with just 6 cows.

It was my first visit to photograph portraits at working dairy farm and it was interesting to hear about day to day life during the photo shoot with Rebecca, who is the daughter of Richard and Dee who run the farm.

Rebecca is the forth generation who helps with the day to day of the dairy farm which in itself is a 24 hour operation.

I learnt that, breed dependent, cows can be very curious things, and so after a narrow avoidance of them licking the camera kit (and me) we visited the maize crops which were about to be harvested and distributed around the UK.

My thanks to Rebecca for taking time out to show me around their Kent dairy farm and for allowing me to take some portaits.

This portrait photography project has opened up opportunities to cross paths with folk who I’d never ordinarily have met, and so to be able to get a glimpse into their working lives and to see what it takes to bring incredible produce to our doors is something I’m very grateful for.

Photographed on the Mamiya RZ67 Proii medium format camera, using Kodak Portra 400 and Ilford HP4 film.