FEEDLOTS
2012–13
Feedlots (2012–13) reveals the hidden architecture of industrial cattle farming across the American Midwest. Seen from satellites hundreds of miles above, the sprawling grids, waste lagoons, and engineered pens expose the brutal efficiency of a system designed to maximise profit from every living body.
I first came across these sites on Google Earth and had no idea what I was seeing. From above, the mass and density of black and white dots looked almost microbial. Only later did I learn they were feedlots: vast farms designed to fatten cattle for slaughter in the minimum time possible and for maximum profit. Where it once took five years for a cow to reach full weight, today the process has been engineered down to less than 18 months.
This acceleration depends on growth hormones, antibiotics, and an industrial logic applied to every aspect of the feedlot’s design: from the number of cattle crammed into each pen, to the channels carrying waste into lagoons of urine and manure, their chemical mix producing surreal hues visible from space. The images in this series are stitched together from hundreds of satellite screenshots, creating large prints of extraordinary detail.
Although these pictures depict industrial farming, I also see them as portraits of a wider cultural mindset; an attitude toward life and death that extends far beyond the pens. Each feedlot is a diagram of extraction, a system where every ounce of a body is drained for value. Forbidden to photograph on the ground by Ag-Gag laws, these landscapes are paradoxically hidden in plain sight, their full scale only revealed when viewed from hundreds of miles above.
Collect this work ︎︎︎
List of Works
Coronado Feeders, Dalhart, Texas (2012)
Archival pigment print, 102x122cm / 150x180cm
Tascosa Feedyard, Bushland, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x129cm / 150x190cm
Randall County Feedyard, Amarillo, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x104cm / 150x153cm
Wrangler Feedyard, Tulia, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x126cm / 150x186cm
Friona Feedyard, Palmer County, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x162cm / 150x238cm
Centerfire Feedyard, Ulysses, Kansas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x128cm / 150x189cm
Black Diamond Feeders, Herington, Kansas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x135cm / 150x199cm
I first came across these sites on Google Earth and had no idea what I was seeing. From above, the mass and density of black and white dots looked almost microbial. Only later did I learn they were feedlots: vast farms designed to fatten cattle for slaughter in the minimum time possible and for maximum profit. Where it once took five years for a cow to reach full weight, today the process has been engineered down to less than 18 months.
This acceleration depends on growth hormones, antibiotics, and an industrial logic applied to every aspect of the feedlot’s design: from the number of cattle crammed into each pen, to the channels carrying waste into lagoons of urine and manure, their chemical mix producing surreal hues visible from space. The images in this series are stitched together from hundreds of satellite screenshots, creating large prints of extraordinary detail.
Although these pictures depict industrial farming, I also see them as portraits of a wider cultural mindset; an attitude toward life and death that extends far beyond the pens. Each feedlot is a diagram of extraction, a system where every ounce of a body is drained for value. Forbidden to photograph on the ground by Ag-Gag laws, these landscapes are paradoxically hidden in plain sight, their full scale only revealed when viewed from hundreds of miles above.
Collect this work ︎︎︎
List of Works
Coronado Feeders, Dalhart, Texas (2012)
Archival pigment print, 102x122cm / 150x180cm
Tascosa Feedyard, Bushland, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x129cm / 150x190cm
Randall County Feedyard, Amarillo, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x104cm / 150x153cm
Wrangler Feedyard, Tulia, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x126cm / 150x186cm
Friona Feedyard, Palmer County, Texas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x162cm / 150x238cm
Centerfire Feedyard, Ulysses, Kansas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x128cm / 150x189cm
Black Diamond Feeders, Herington, Kansas (2013)
Archival pigment print, 102x135cm / 150x199cm
SELECTED PRESS
SELECTED EXHIBITION HISTORY
RELATED PROJECTS
FIELDS
EIGHTEEN PUMPJACKS
EVAPORATION PONDS
DUTCH LANDSCAPES