Working the Harvest in California

A multi-level portrait of a working-class community, Yakima, in central Washington state, revealing its human face of work and poverty. Images explore the geography of its barrios and workplaces, both the closed factory of Yakima’s past and the agricultural fields of its present.

Originally intending to photograph farm workers, I wanted to show other dimensions of the Latino community, including houses and trailers, a closed plywood mill, a homeless encampment, and guest worker camps.

One older man who came to the U.S. as a bracero and worked as a farm worker for many years was collecting cans for recycling to have enough money to eat. Photographing his hands is a tribute to all the work reflected there, and to the working people of Yakima.

David Bacon

David Bacon has been photographing the social movements of workers and migrants for three decades. His most recent book, about the U.S./Mexico border, is More Than a Wall/Mas que un muro.