by Aaron Schuman

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Commissioned by The Gaia Foundation for nationwide arts and agriculture campaign ‘We Feed The UK’, working in partnership with GRAIN Projects and Fordhall Organic Farm, Shropshire. Heft is an immersive photobook, published by GRAIN Projects.

Aaron Schuman has made new work in response to Fordhall Organic Farm, a unique farm in Shropshire and England’s first community-owned farm, with shareholders of over 8000 people worldwide. 

heft 

(n.)  1.  a settled or accustomed pasture-ground
2.  a fixed or established place of abode
3.  a number of sheets of paper fastened together to form a book

(v.)  1.  to establish in a situation or place of residence
2.  to accustom (sheep, cattle) to a pasturage
3.  to lift, raise, bear up
4.  to hold in one’s hand

On his first day visiting Fordhall Organic Farm, while walking amongst the sheep grazing in the sun-drenched pastures, Schuman encountered Julie Cooper, a former teacher and educator, and one of the farm’s many valued volunteers. He says: “During the course of our conversation, she asked me if I was familiar with the ancient shepherding practice of ‘hefting’. She explained that ‘hefted’ sheep are free to roam over large areas of land, yet they develop an innate sense of belonging to a specific place or pasture, where they prefer to go to live and graze – a very distinct area where they feel calm, comfortable, comforted and safe, and return to again and again. Furthermore, she continued, this homing instinct and strong sense of belonging is often passed down from ewes to lambs without the shepherd’s intervention, with extended families of sheep returning to the same place over many generations. Before going our separate ways, I asked Julie if she herself felt ‘hefted’ to this particular place, and after thinking for a moment she replied, ‘Yes, like many of the people who come here regularly, I suppose I do!”

Fordhall Organic Farm is one of Britain’s longest-standing organic farms, and the first community-owned farm in England: a 140-acre site with more than eight-thousand landlords. Alongside being a working livestock farm, Fordhall has since grown into a nurturing farm for the surrounding community, where individuals, friends and families, local residents, groups of vulnerable teenagers, people with learning disabilities and health-related challenges, and the general public at large are invited to visit, volunteer and actively engage with the land and farm – to heal, be nurtured, and commune with nature on their own terms, for their own reasons, and in their own way. Each person is encouraged to develop a relationship with place that is intimate, immersive and ‘hefted’ to the land itself.

Schuman adds “This loose-leaf photographic book – or ‘heft’ (see definitions above) – expresses the immediacy and sensorial intensity of the experience of nature at Fordhall Farm over the course of several months. Its aim, in both the images themselves and the overall form, is to offer an individualised, immersive, and interactive visual experience to each reader, who is encouraged to dismantle the book and then arrange, sequence and adapt the pages as they see fit – to create a unique and personalised encounter with the farm, and to find their own innate sense of belonging and ‘heft’ within it, with the possibility of returning to it again and again.”

Schuman was commissioned in 2023 by The Gaia Foundation in collaboration with GRAIN Projects, as part of We Feed The UK: a national storytelling campaign using the transformative power of photography  to grow support for nature-friendly, community-centred food systems.

The Gaia Foundation also commissioned Birmingham Poet Laureate, Jasmine Gardosi, to create a new poem for this story.  ‘Just One’ can be viewed here.

FORDHALL COMMUNITY LAND INITIATIVE 
Fordhall Organic Farm is the first community-owned farm in England.  Ben and Charlotte Hollins inherited the tenancy from their father: organic pioneer, Arthur Hollins. In 2006, aged just 19 and 21, they led a campaign that inspired citizens the world over to save it from development. The 140-acre Shropshire site is now one of Britain’s longest-standing chemical-free farms, and the only one with 8000 landlords.

Ben and Charlotte’s reimagining of ownership is a radical reflection of regenerative agriculture itself. The UK’s dominant, industrial approach to food production supresses diversity. Fordhall Organic Farm is empowering a complex community to self-organise towards greater interdependence and resilience.
https://www.fordhallfarm.com/

AARON SCHUMAN
An acclaimed photographer, writer, curator and educator, Aaron Schuman has been exhibited internationally including at the Tate Modern, Hauser & Wirth, and at Christie’s.  In addition to his own photographic work he is the author of several critically-acclaimed photographic monographs and he has curated numerous major international festivals and exhibitions.       
 https://www.aaronschuman.com/bio.html

THE GAIA FOUNDATION and WE FEED THE UK
The Gaia Foundation is a small, international organisation with 35 years’ experience accompanying partners, communities and movements around the world to revive and protect bio-cultural diversity.  Gaia take a holistic approach to regenerate healthy ecosystems and strengthen community self-governance. We Feed The UK is a storytelling campaign pairing photographers and poets with food producers, to raise awareness of the potential of agroecological food systems to mitigate climate change, bring wildlife back and unify communities.
https://gaiafoundation.org/         https://wefeedtheuk.org/