May storm clouds approach downtown Raleigh creating an interesting mix of drearyness and brooding excitement.

I snapped this photo of the newly opened Fayetteville Street Mall on a dreary January day in 1978. I had just returned to Raleigh  after a 3-year stint away at school. This was my first look at the transformed street, and I must admit, I was not impressed. For some reason an image of cold-war era East Berlin kept flashing through my head.

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Between 2002 and 2007, North Carolina lost more than 1,000 farms and 600,000 acres of farmland. That’s a staggering set of figures, but really should come as no surprise. Farming as a way of life has been in decline since the Great Depression, but in recent years this decline has accelerated significantly. As housing developments rapidly encroach on land once used to grow crops, property values (and in turn, taxes) have risen as well. For many, it’s becoming too difficult to carry on with the family farm.

Asheville-based photographer Tim Barnwell has been documenting this way of life and its decline for the past 25 years, and now you can see the results of this almost lifelong quest at the North Carolina Museum of History. Titled On Earth’s Furrowed Brow: The Appalachian Farm in Photographs, the exhibit documents in black and white the people and landscape of a rural place that time once forgot, but is now catching up with. Most of the images include quotations or historical context for the photograph displayed. From stories of how loved ones met, to life before electricity, as well as dealing with the strife associated with carving out a living day to day, the words are sure to give a striking glimpse into a world quite different than the urban life of downtown Raleigh.

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