A Hutterite chicken butcher covered in blood … Tim Smith's best photograph

The Guardian

26-02-2025

The Hutterites are an Anabaptist movement – they believe in adult baptism and pacifism. Like the Mennonites and the Amish, they emerged from the Radical Reformation in central Europe in the 1500s, but unlike them they live communally, with all goods and property shared among members of the community. Today, Hutterite colonies mostly exist on either side of the US-Canada border, where there are more than 500 of them.
In 2009, I was driving through Canada's Manitoba prairies in search of interesting photos for the newspaper I work for, the Brandon Sun, when I spotted some women working in the garden at Deerboine Colony. I knew a little about the Hutterites but not a lot, and pulled over to ask if I could make some pictures. The women were friendly and agreed, and I spent the afternoon chatting and photographing them.
One of the young women took a flip phone out and took some pictures of me while I was working. Until then, I would have assumed Hutterites avoid modern technology in much the same way Amish and many Mennonite communities do. But this woman had almost exactly the same phone as I did, and that's what hooked me. I had a series of discussions with the colony's minister, Tom, who was open to me coming back to learn more and take further photographs. At the time I thought: 'Here's a personal project I can sink my teeth into outside of my job and freelance work, and maybe spend a year on.' I've now been visiting Hutterite colonies for more than 15 years – a few dozen of them so far. I remain fascinated by their way of life, and want to show it in as nuanced a way as possible.
The colonies are very self-sufficient. Their members grow and raise the overwhelming majority of the food they eat. Deerboine has a poultry barn, and the life of an egg-laying chicken is about nine months. Every year there's a turnover as new hens are brought in for peak egg production and the last batch are slaughtered. When this photograph was taken, in 2015, I think they had around 11,000 chickens, and every able-bodied person in the community helped out in the two days of butchering.
The first time I approached Tom to ask whether I could photograph the process, he made a deal with me. He said: 'If you help out in the morning, you can photograph in the afternoon.' The chickens are stunned with an electric rod, then decapitated, then they go in a big drum that removes all the feathers before the carcass goes down a sort of assembly line to be cleaned and packaged to be frozen. I helped out with the cleaning part. I was vegetarian at the time, so it was an interesting experience, but it was fascinating to see how everyone worked.
Justin Hofer, who you see here, really stood out. Seeing him covered in blood, I wanted to make a portrait that showed this is hard work, and not pretty. About 80 to 90% of my Hutterite work is fly-on-the-wall documentary stuff, just waiting for things to happen, while the portraits tell the story a bit differently, giving more of an insight into individuals. They also terrify me, because I'm a fairly socially awkward person.
This portrait draws viewers in: you want to know the story behind it. Why is this young man covered in blood? It's a little shocking, and people in mainstream society can be uncomfortable with the idea of where their food comes from. Justin has since left the colony, as young Hutterites occasionally do, although some later return. They tend to do very well in the outside world as they have a reputation for being intelligent and hard-working. But there's clearly a huge draw to the kind of community life Hutterites practice – that closeness, not having to worry about losing wages if you get sick, or who's going to take care of you. There's a lot of joy and laughter. I can definitely see the appeal of Hutterite life.
Born: Ottawa, Canada 1978.Trained: Journalism and photography at the Western Academy of Photography, Victoria, Canada.Influences: 'So many documentary photographers. Amy Toensing was the first photographer whose work I really connected with. Lynn Johnson, Ami Vitale, Stephanie Sinclair, Natela Grigalashvili, Lucas Foglia, Terra Fondriest, Larry Towell – too many others to name.'High point: 'Any moment I get to spend photographing people who are gracious enough to share their lives with me, and especially when I'm out at a colony. I'm always happy there.'Low point: 'The deterioration of photojournalism as a viable career, especially in Canada, feels like a continual low point that gets lower every year. Making a mistake while doing my job also always feels pretty low, even if it's as simple as spelling a name wrong in a caption.'Top tip: 'Invest in time over any other aspect. Gear doesn't matter. Find something to photograph you're curious about and want to keep going back to again and again.'