David Middleton

Quite a Sightly Place David Middleton

Fifty years ago, there were fifty family dairy farms in the town of Danby, Vermont. Today, there are four. Nationally acclaimed nature photographer David Middleton spent four years working on one of these farms, side by side with the three generations who operate it. Eldest is 93-year-old Hugh Bromley, the grandson of the first Bromley to raise dairy cows here. The property has been in the Bromley family since before the Civil War. Hugh's son, Roger, runs the farm today, along with his wife Trish. Their three sons come and go on the farm, depending on how busy their own lives are. The Bromley farm is ""quite a sightly place,"" the description Hugh's wife gave it when she first laid eyes on the place after World War II. Middleton has captured not only the visual beauty of this vanishing world but the voices of the Bromleys. Color images are interwoven with thirty short stories of life on the farm. Hugh recalls the early years as he goes about his chores. Roger, as engaging as he is shy, explains the day-to-day working of the family dairy business today. It's a fascinating world and, with Roger as the main guide, it's a pretty funny one as well.