INTRODUCTION: Harlingen AGRI is a series of photos in which I expand upon the fascination I have with my home town of Harlingen, TX. While exploring and photographing this place more and more often, I couldn’t help but see the strong influence that agriculture has on it. It’s something that I suppose I have always known, but never really acknowledged. Agriculture is the largest business in the area, and is what Harlingen was built upon. Throughout my youth, I would see these huge fields of grains, cotton, onion, and corn, as well as the massive facilities in which they were harvested. It’s all very hard to ignore, but I somehow managed at the time. Living here during the pandemic, I wanted to take the opportunity to explore these facilities and get a closer look. As I began doing so, I couldn’t shake the feeling that it was wrong for me to enter, as if it was forbidden. Despite this, my interest to be inside and explore couldn’t be ignored. As I began shooting, my apprehension turned to understanding that there is a barrier between myself and these mills. I did not belong here. I have tried to incorporate this new understanding into the images to create the feelings of it being “off limits.” DRAFT-2
I began looking at my hometown more deeply and with more scrutiny. When I was younger and growing up, I knew where I was, but was not actually conscious of what I was looking at. This, however, over time has changed. While growing up, my friends and I always talked about getting older and graduating high school, leaving to somewhere new. My choice was Houston. I graduated without a bitter thought. I didn’t care that I was leaving the place I grew up in, and the friends I made along the way. Looking back, I realize that I took these things for granted, and it saddens me. I arrived in Houston, and my new life began. It wasn’t long before I realized that this was going to be the longest semester of my life. Between visits from my mom, I began to feel more and more lonely. I missed my friends. I missed my family and the place I knew so well. I simply felt empty. When I finally came home for Christmas break, I couldn’t be more excited. I would walk around and take photographs almost haphazardly; not thinking while eventually putting together some images that captured the interesting architecture of a small South Texas town. While I knew it was the beginning of something, I had no idea as to where it would lead. After a few more years of coming down to Harlingen from school, I realized that I had developed a concept. I explored my connection to this town that means so much to me, and have begun to understand why it does, how it has changed. I looked for answers as to what made me happy in Harlingen. My answer was found in the surroundings...the buildings and the streets that I didn’t know by name, but by sight and location. Harlingen is simply just familiar to me, and change is hard. After living there for 18 years, parting became a bittersweet adjustment. I experienced it and dealt with it by creating photographs.
Through exploration and the creation of these photographs, I have found a new love for Harlingen. I’ve become more interested in the day to day comings and goings of the small town. I’ve realized the strong influence of the agriculture business in the area. Despite the town being surrounded by farm land and massive mills, I missed it growing up. I never took the time to think or ask questions about it. I grew up knowing friends’ parents’ who were in the business, but it was never anything that interested me. However, with this new found interest in Harlingen, and a rekindling of my love for it, I have found the examination of this business very interesting. After exploring, I landed on cotton, and the processing of the crop. Two major figures played into this decision; first, is the fact that cotton is such a widespread crop, and the second is the strange connection I have to a certain cotton mill in town. While growing up, every week day I would drive past these two mills on my way to school. Something about the awful smells seeping through the car and the dust kicked up by said car engrained itself in my memory. I began to photograph these mills the way I always saw them, from the outside with the fence being the barrier between me and these giant mills that built the town I grew up in. It felt wrong to enter the building. I captured the mills the same way I captured the architecture of downtown Harlingen, from a distance while admiring and respecting the architecture and the history that is present on these grounds. Following up on these mills, and interested in learning more, I reached out to a friend of my father’s, Dennis Easly. Talking to him was the obvious next step for me in researching the facility and the business. Dennis is an executive at the Valco Oil Mill in Harlingen. He and his family have worked the business for eight generations. I found this to be incredible, and I was extremely excited to hear of his deep connection to the facility. We spoke on several occasions about his experiences running and maintaining these structures. DRAFT - 2
epilogue:
While exploring the currently operational cotton oil mill, Dennis let me know about the facility across the street. It was their original cotton mill that was operational between 1900 - the 1940s. Thinking back to when this original facility was in full operation along with the high racial tension during these times, interests me. To think what could have been said or done here is haunting. Dennis Easley was a great resource to me throughout my time exploring both mills. He was born into the business and was the 8th generation of his family to work in this industry. DRAFT - 1