Blood and Soil

For over twenty years, I’ve returned to the Trexler family farm in North Carolina to document their traditional hog killings. These gatherings, held in the cold months of spring and fall, aren’t commercial—they’re communal acts of sustenance and connection. Family and friends come together to raise, harvest, and preserve food that will feed them throughout the year. Every step is done by hand, with deep respect for the lives they take and the lives they nourish.

The Trexlers are kind, grounded people. Their hog killings are about care, legacy, and feeding their community. Fires burn through the night. Smoke drifts in early light. Children learn from elders. Neighbors lend a hand. It’s hard, physical work—tending fires, stirring cauldrons, processing every part of the animal—but it’s shared, made lighter by conversation, laughter.

This project is about dignity in that labor. About joy and reverence that live side by side. In a world where our food is often stripped of origin and meaning, their practice offers something else: a model of care, memory, and rooted responsibility.

Tracy Arney

Photography is, was, and always will be my passion. In my work, the line between reality and surrealism blurs, teasing the impossible. It is a real world of my own creation, where images are shot with intention, composited, and crafted in the digital darkroom to match what I see in my head.

A proud graduate of Arizona State University with a BFA, I've also enriched my knowledge at Oxford University. My photography has received accolades, gracing various galleries, celebrated for its captivating blend of reality and imagination. Art, at its core, is a way to capture and maintain your attention long enough that it works its way into your soul. In exploring my portfolio.