Previous Exhibit | Black Soil – The McDougall Center for Photojournalism Studies

Photography by Torsten Kjellstrand

Torsten Kjellstrand’s Black Soil is an exposition of lives of hard work and the fragility of African American land ownership in the Missouri Bootheel from 1990-2018. Part of the Black Soil was Kjellstrand’s Master’s project while he was getting his MA in Journalism as a student at the University of Missouri.

Kjellstrand says of the work:

‘To photograph who people are you first have to try to figure just who they are. That’s where we can get in a little bit of trouble. The people in these photographs are Black African-Americans. I am an immigrant from Sweden. No one should have confidence that I know enough about the experiences of Black farmers to take pictures that can authoritatively say anything about who they are. Add to this a history of inaccurate, often destructive, White narratives about Black Americans, and it is only fair that one of your responses to these photos should be at least a bit of skepticism.

I hope that what you see are photographs that celebrate the lives of people I met. I hope you’ll see Ted Pullen working hard to gracefully live in a community where White farmers and bankers have most of the power while also pushing to keep Black-owned land worked by Black farmers. I hope you’ll see the success of Mr. Will Richardson, who came to the Bootheel with little more than a change of clothes and a hoe and created a Black-owned farm of almost 500 acres that could support three generations of Richardsons. I hope you’ll see Airlean and Willie Peat, who worked hard to make a living off of 80 acres even as the technology of farming drifted farther and farther from their ability to use it – and I hope you’ll see the generosity of Ted Pullen as he worked to keep the Peat’s farm viable. I hope you’ll see Elijah Pullen, who worked hard to escape the life of his father, a farmer and preacher, only to return to preach and farm when his father grew ill and needed help.”

Kjellstrand is an award-winning photojournalist who has been a staff photographer for The Herald in Jasper, Indiana, The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington and The Oregonian in Portland Oregan. He is currently a Professor of Practice at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon.

A farmer stands with his hand resting atop the handle of a tool while he looks out of frame. — Willie Peet

A young girl pulls on the door handle of a parked truck while the driver looks at her with a smile — Joe and Monique Richardson

A portrait of a young boy. — Eric Richardson

A man standing in the middle of a small room holds an object up to the light while an elderly man rests in a bed. — Elijah and Raymond Pullen

A man stands atop a building looking out at over a planted field. — Ted Pullen

A young child sits in a chair. — Monique Richardson

Two men work in a planted field — Airlene and Willie Peet

A woman sits in a chair while a young girl does her hair. — Grethel Richardson

A man wearing the attire of a priest stands upright next to a car — Elijah Pullen

A man uses an excavator to dig a grave as two young boys climb around the freshly dug grave. — Andy Pullen

A woman feeds a group of farm chickens outside their coop — Airlene Peet

A family stands together for a portrait — Joe Richardson with son Eric Richardson and son Justin Richardson and Justin’s son Gabriel on their farm new New Madrid, Missouri.

A man sits on top large pile of harvested beans next to a farmed field — Andy Pullen waits for Ted to return as Ted, Andy, and Rayburn Pullen harvest beans on Andy’s land near Sikeston and Bell City, MO