The Story

My name is Camilla Rutherford, professional photographer and story teller. I am a farmers wife, I am a mother. This is the blog of my personal photography project into documenting regenerative agriculture, through the art of photography in New Zealand.

We live on my husbands families high country merino sheep station, near Wanaka in New Zealand. Over the past few years my husband has been transitioning the farm into regenerative agriculture practices. Im here to tell you what that means for our farm, us as consumers and our planet. 

The Regenerative Agriculture movement is a farmer led revolution happening world wide.

Ultimately, the main focus of Regenerative Agriculture is to build soil life and health, and there are a number of practices that contribute to that, for example: planting cover crops, utilising compost, and not tilling the soil. Another key piece is reintroducing animals to the land the way nature intended. Well-managed grazing is a true cornerstone of building a diversity of life beneath the surface of the soil and above it as well! Healthy soil equals healthy land, healthy animals, healthy people, and ultimately a healthy planet and climate. No matter what your personal dietary choices are, we all have the same goal: to eat honestly grown healthy, life-giving food (meat or not) and to live on a healthy, thriving planet. 

We need to get on the same page: Regenerative Agriculture is one-of-the-most-promising solutions we have as a global society to reverse climate change AND to have food that is actually healthy and nutrient dense! All of our food (meat or not) needs to come from as local as possible, regenerative farms. 

In order to tell this story beyond our farm, I have started this personal photography project. I am documenting farms across New Zealand who are following regenerative agriculture principals while growing food for a circular economy and in tune with nature. I will be photographing and telling their story and how their farms impact and enhance our environment along with producing nutrient dense food. 

I have been very fortunate to be awarded the 2020 Professional Photographers Grant by Canon NZ which gave me the financial backing and camera gear that I need to shoot the project. I was also supported by VW New Zealand who loaned me a camper van to tour in. Huge thank you to these large corporates who believe in what I am doing and support the story I am telling.

Please check out my instagram page @healtheearthnz and this blog for stories as my journey unfolds. I aim for this story to go main stream. It’s time the people of NZ were well informed about how farming can be a huge part of the solution to climate change, water quality, biodiversity, food security, rather than a problem.

To view my other photography work please visit www.camillarutherford.co.nz