Drawn To The Land - Sophie Gerrard

Drawn To The Land is an ongoing and exploratory project which takes an intimate look at the contemporary Scottish landscape through the eyes of the women who are working, forming and shaping it. Working and living in a male dominated world, women have a significant yet under represent...
More often that not, that perspective is a male one, I was curious to understand it from a female view point. Female farmers are underrepresented in the UK, and yet, according to the Office of National Statistics the number of women in farming has increased by almost 25% in the last 1...

Patricia's blackfaced ewes with windfarm turbines, 2013

Patricia's blackfaced ewes with windfarm turbines, The Scottish Borders. January 2013

Drawn To The Land is an ongoing and exploratory project which takes an intimate look at the contemporary Scottish landscape through the eyes of the women who are working, forming and shaping it.

Working and living in a male dominated world, women have a significant yet under represented role to play in farming in Scotland. Farming some of the most inhospitable and isolated rural areas of Scotland, these female farmers have an intense and remarkable relationship with the harsh landscape in which they live and work.

The project aims to explore the domestic landscape as well as the physical, following the emotional story of the land as much as the historical and geographical. The women’s’ personal and physical stories reflect a wider story of our national identity, and emotional relationship with the landscape.
This project began in 2012 as a way of exploring my own relationship with the Scottish landscape. Having worked and lived away from Scotland for almost a decade working on environmentally focused photographic projects, I set out to understand the connection I, like many Scots, have with the landscape. It’s a great symbol of our national identity and nostalgia – but one which can often lead to a view of the picturesque, of romance and “rural fantasy”.

My aim was to uncover something more authentic. And so began a personal journey for me, I wanted to scratch the surface, to go beyond the picturesque postcard view and learn about the land through the eyes of those who are responsible for it.

Minty, from the series Drawn To The Land, 2014

Minty on her croft. High Lee Croft, Bunessan. Isle of Mull, Scotland, March 2014.

More often that not, that perspective is a male one, I was curious to understand it from a female view point. Female farmers are underrepresented in the UK, and yet, according to the Office of National Statistics the number of women in farming has increased by almost 25% in the last 10 years.

Drawn To The Land has become a long term ongoing contemporary “portrait” of a number of female farmers in Scotland who shape and are shaped by their landscape.
Sybil, Mary, Sarah, Minty, Patricia and Lorraine are 6 remarkable women, each of them hill farmers taking responsibility for remote and diverse parts of the Scottish landscape. They have their own stories, but all talk of being custodians, not landowners. They demonstrate a great empathy with the livestock they have responsibility for and above all else, they talk of being drawn to hill, drawn to the land, and often of being unable to imagine themselves doing anything else.

“Drawn To The Land” documents an emotional response to the subject of landscape. Each of these womens’ stories reflects a wider story of our national identity, and relationship with our landscape.