Picture Show: Honest Work on an Organic Farm

In an effort to escape hustle and bustle of his urban life, the photographer Jake Stangel contacted Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. WWOOF, as it's more commonly known, links volunteers with organic farmers to "promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices." WWOOF connected Stangel with a couple who operate an organic farm in Central Florida, where he spent two weeks learning how to work with his hands and till some land.

"I had this desire to leave the urban environment, to ditch the computer and the phone" says Stangel, who lives in Portland, Oregon. "I got to work a handful of other people—to use my hands and power tools—on this beautiful farm in the middle of nowhere."

Although he may have left the computer at home, he brought his camera with him, and he documented his work with remarkable imagery. What follows is a selection from Jake Stangel's "Florida Farming."

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Adjacent road to the farm, foggy morning

Bringing sheep to pasture, early morning

Hens and rooster

Neighbors- Erica and Kalai

Storage barn

Cold morning turns into a hot afternoon

Erica picks tangerines

Cupcake

Alexis (sheep) dies suddenly in the pasture of worms

Rusted woven fence, to be brought to the scrap center

Cupcake and Megan dig a hole together

Anne, 4 days old, next to her mom

Tacoma climbs the tangerine tree

Chicken coop, early morning

Farm tools

Sheepskin, halfway through drying

Inside the tool shed

Steam off the pond

Leon leading his sheep