East Hallside Farm sat behind our house when we moved to the area in 2002, and became a deeply personal project. The farm was owned by John Letham — Farmer John — with whom I became close during the two years we had together before his death; his son Robert later took over, and became a special part of our godchildren's lives. I was known there as "the man from Reuters," rarely without a camera. These images were made using the wet plate collodion process, often under challenging conditions. The farm is gone now, replaced by a housing estate — progress, as Farmer John would have said.